End of All Sense
by Rainbowkittyblossomwings
Summary: Natsumi and her friends have been living in the base for a year after a nuclear war had ravaged the world destroying humanity as she knows it. The radiation outside still proves to be deadly, at least to aliens having terribly mutated the keronians into something resembling each of the five senses. Can Natsumi save her friends and the aliens in this post-apocalyptic world?
1. A Dark Future

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Hey guys! Here's my next story. So it's going to start with a flash forward, to get you to try to see where life is for everyone. But I promise next chapter it will explain what happened and be during the tragedies of a year ago.**

 **This is kind of a five senses AU I suppose? I wrote the plan for it after I finished the Sin of Hope, a seven deadly sins AU. Each of the keronians will resemble a sense.**

 **Uhh...Spoilers I guess?**

 **At the moment it's going to be 27 chapters. I hope you enjoy it.**

 **Also, my sister has finally edited this fic. (Or at least the first chapters) And I apologize about the bad clip art cover.**

* * *

Natsumi sighed as she looked down at her journal. In the last year, she had categorized every day of the hell hole she lived in. It was one of the few tasks she'd promised herself she'd do to keep sane.

Skimming through the pages and entries, she saw pages and pages filled with her own mundane words, explaining the boring details of her new life.

She opened the journal to a blank page, pencil in hand. She was ready to jot down the boring aspects of her imprisonment again.

It was the only thing she really could do.

 _Day 365 of living in the safety of the base,_

 _Things remaining mostly the same. Boring as always. The outside world still is deemed unsafe from the nuclear warfare that destroyed most of humanity a year ago. Radiation would probably kill us instantly if we went outside, so Fuyuki, me, Saburo, and Koyuki remain here, as always._

 _It's occurred to me that we're probably the last humans in existence. I know we've held out hope that Mom somehow survived, but... it's very unlikely. We four are the last ones alive. I... I don't know how to feel about that._

 _I doubt anyone else had alien technology to hold out this long. Living a year after the apocalypse is pretty good, I guess._

 _But supplies are running low. We don't know how much longer we can last. A year after the apocalypse might be the longest we can survive._

 _The base can no longer supply four people living in it. And I don't know when we'll run out for good._

 _We've fought off death valiantly for a year, but I think the end of our days is coming up._

 _And... honestly, I don't know how to feel. Is this a good thing? We've all been living like dead people. Sad, silent and mostly in shock. We've all known the inevitable will happen and that we've avoided death long enough, but still... we still fight. If there's one thing that we share it's the desire to survive._

 _But, even that might not be enough to save us._

Natsumi finished her entry. The sadness in her body no longer even existed at the sad aspects of her new life.

This was merely the facts. She lived this life now and she had to make the best of it.

She tried to skim to the first pages of her journal, but it was mostly smudged by tears. She frowned when looking at it. The first days had been the second toughest to deal with, but three months had been when she cried the hardest.

That had been when the frogs had left the safety of the base. She looked down at a smudged page with just the words "Giroro come back" over and over again.

He wasn't coming back, though. Deep down, she knew that. He had insisted that Keronians would be immune to the radiation outside, that he would come back just like the rest of them. But nine months later and he still hadn't returned.

He had died out there. He had died because he thought the outside world was safe. He was wrong.

* * *

Despite what her journal suggested, Natsumi kept smiling in front of her companions in the base. She knew she had to be the one to keep up hope, to keep them sane. She kept a list of mundane tasks that they all did, to try to make sure the isolation and being in the same place everyday didn't get to them.

She needed to be the strong one to them. The warrior, the leader. She didn't mind this job. It was the only thing really keeping her going.

She needed to hope. For them.

Fuyuki, Koyuki and Saburo all seemed to have glum expressions on their face as they met with her all sitting on various chairs as they looked at nothing except the blank white walls.

"So..." Natsumi cleared her throat, glancing at her friends and brother. At least she wasn't dealing with this apocalypse alone. "Status on the supply problem? Anyone discover a hidden trove or something that... _they_ left behind?" She tried not to mention the frogs in front of Fuyuki. It just hurt him.

She tried to take charge, to gain their attention. Her voice was the only thing filling the empty halls of the base.

Saburo's arm was draped around Fuyuki's shoulders as he pulled him closer. Fuyuki's eyes were just filled with an empty expression as Saburo snuggled up to his... boyfriend? Friend? Natsumi wasn't sure what they were. She knew Saburo sometimes kissed Fuyuki, but it honestly seemed to her only a bland way to pass the time. Fuyuki always acted like a limp, dead fish. He had never really recovered from the aspect of their imprisonment, and especially the fact that Keroro hadn't come back and that Momoka had most likely died when all the bombs had been falling.

It was really odd, seeing her former crush kiss her little brother, but honestly she couldn't blame him. Anyway, to pass the time was fine with all of them. It was so dull in the base.

Honestly, she just felt bad for Fuyuki. He obviously wasn't very into it, but he was just so depressed that at least it was something happening in his life.

"The supplies aren't doing good. As I said yesterday, we've almost run out of food. Water's still good, but this base can no longer supply four humans living in it," Saburo told her. Natsumi nodded. She knew that, but it still hurt to hear.

Most likely they'd either have to die together or kick someone out. And she was not about to kick any of her friends out of the base.

"If... If we do kick someone out... how long will the rest of us have?" Koyuki spoke up. She wanted the realistic facts.

"About an extra month," Saburo admitted.

Natsumi nodded "We need to decide what we'll do soon, then."

The meeting was dismissed.

* * *

As the leader of their unofficial group, Natsumi tried to keep things generally normal in their heads. Or at least, that was what she wanted to cling to.

To do this, she always spoke to each of them one-on-one to see how they were faring.

"How are things going, Koyuki?" Natsumi asked. A part of her heart was happy that at least her best friend had survived this. She was so glad that Koyuki was with her, even if in the last few months they had started talking less and less as depression and hopelessness had settled into Koyuki's mind. Koyuki had given up hope of things ever getting better, and Natsumi couldn't lie to her and say that she believed that it would get better.

Optimism was supposed to be Fuyuki's job. But he never had any of it now.

"Same as it was yesterday," Koyuki told her, curtly and bluntly. She wasn't much for conversations anymore.

"Koyuki... You know we could talk about it, about what you're feeling..." Natsumi tried to comfort the girl.

"Talking about it won't do anything. We'll still be imprisoned here," she pointed out. Out of everyone, Koyuki had a problem with being contained in one place the most. Being raised in a ninja village, Koyuki hadn't even known what nuclear warfare was until Natsumi explained it to her.

She had believed that she could have fought it off with a kunai blade for the first few weeks. She had been wrong.

Natsumi put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, but knew being there wouldn't do any good. She finally nodded and left.

Her brother was next on her list.

* * *

"I think we should just all die," Fuyuki said simply, and to Natsumi's horror.

"Wh-what?" Natsumi asked.

"They did, after all. They died. Everybody dies. Mom did... Momoka... and him..." Fuyuki didn't even cry anymore. He was just too broken. "Humanity died. It's our turn."

Natsumi wanted to cry after hearing her brother say that. She hugged Fuyuki. "We have to live, Fuyuki. For all of them. We may be the last humans, but we can't just give up."

Fuyuki didn't answer. He was afraid of death, but there was a part of him that still desperately wanted to give up.

* * *

Saburo was the one who was coping the best. He wasn't broken like Koyuki and Fuyuki were. But he was incredibly bored, which was a problem.

Sometimes in the past year, he had even tried to stir up trouble just to have something interesting in their lives. It was a problem, but at least it was something to do.

Saburo played with a hacky sack as Natsumi approached him to talk.

"Kululu would have known what to do," he said quietly, referring to their issue about the supplies. Koyuki and Fuyuki barely talked about the frogs, and Natsumi had forbidden Saburo from mentioning them by name in front of them because it caused either of them to start crying. Alone, Saburo talked about them a lot.

"But Kululu isn't here," Natsumi responded gently. "He's gone."

"He shouldn't have left. Didn't he know it was an idiot move?" Saburo expressed regret. Natsumi nodded.

"I know... They promised they'd be back. I miss them too," She sympathized, thinking about Giroro. He had promised her that he'd be back. To wait for him. And she was still waiting. He had never returned.

She tried desperately to fight back her tears. Saburo noticed and pat her on the head, gently.

"I'm sorry," he apologized.

"It's all right. I told you not to talk about them to Fuyuki and Koyuki. Not to me. I can deal with it," she told him.

Saburo pulled her closer and gave her a gentle, reassuring hug.

"I know you can," he whispered, "You still have a lot of fight left in you. I mean... If it wasn't for you, we'd have all given up. The only reason we're even considering kicking someone out instead of dying is thanks to you. We still deep down have the desire to survive. And it's all thanks to you."

Natsumi nodded. She needed to be the one with hope. For all of them.

* * *

Sitting in front of her journal for the second time that day, she smiled. Saburo was right. She had to be the one to hope for them to fight.

 _Humanity will recover._ She wrote down the most hopeful words that she had in a long time in her journal. _After all, we're still alive._ She could keep up the fight, for all of them.

Still, she wondered if what she'd written was true. Realistically, there were four of them. If they kicked one of them out and the person managed to score some supplies on the outside and not die of radiation poisoning, then perhaps they could live out the rest of their life in safety.

Making humanity recover required breeding, though... And there were four of them. Since Fuyuki and she were siblings, and even if they were the last people on Earth she wouldn't pair off with him, that meant tha Saburo and she would get together in the future, and Koyuki and Fuyuki.

She didn't like thinking about it, but it seemed to be the most realistic option for humanity to recover.

 _Koyuki and Fuyuki though? They're such a weird pair! I have never seen them have any interaction like that._ Natsumi laughed as she jotted down her thoughts.

Saburo and her though... She wouldn't mind it. It would require breaking her promise though, but it seemed to be the best way for humanity to survive.

 _We can survive,_ she smiled, writing the words in her journal over and over again. She set her pencil down.

Her door opened and Saburo walked in.

"It's time, Natsumi. We can't put on the decision any longer. We need to decide what to do," he told her. "I've called a meeting. You ready?"

Natsumi nodded. She was as ready as she would ever be. And she would take whatever tough decision they settled upon, as long as they decided it together.

She was their hope. Their warrior. And she was ready. She wanted them to live. The question was... did _they_?

* * *

 **I'd just like to say for the record I do not ship Saburo/Fuyuki. I just believe and feel like Saburo kind of has a canon crush on Fuyuki from what I've seen.**

 **I actually ship Momoka/Fuyuki. And...I think that's going to be the pairing in this story Fuyuki-wise? I'm saying I think because I don't remember what chapters/feature/talk about Momoka.**

 **Anyway, all my normal pairings will be featured in this story, because it is me. I'm not much of a muti-shipper to be honest. Just wanted to clear that up.**

 **Please review! Tell me what you think.**


	2. One Year Ago

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **I think the one year before stuff ends around chapter 7. Sorry about that.**

 **Special thanks to RunwithscissorsXXXbattlescars for editing.**

* * *

It had all happened one year ago. That was when the travesty began.

* * *

 **ONE YEAR AGO**

Natsumi hadn't paid attention to the news. She didn't care enough about politics and how worried the news reporters were getting.

"It's just politics." She had waved her hand, chatting casually with Fuyuki. The world leaders and governments were finally waking up to the weird things that was happening in the world - the unexplained. Basically aliens.

However, none of them believed that aliens were causing anything weird. They all blamed each other, thinking some other country had caused mysterious things to happen to them. Tensions were high and rumors spread that a war was about to start.

Natsumi knew that a lot of people kept saying that a world war would start over little things, though. She waved it off as just paranoia. Fuyuki was enraptured with interest in the television, not because he cared about politics but because of how linked to the occult it was their arguments.

"I think I'll talk about it next week in my club!" Fuyuki beamed. "Current issues should be discussed, after all."

"Momoka's the only one in your club," Natsumi reminded him.

"Momoka's enough. She's the best club member out there!" he smiled. Sure, she was the only member, but that meant less competition for best member.

Natsumi rolled her eyes. Fuyuki and Momoka were cute. She couldn't wait for the day for him to realize it.

She dismissed the news, and the panic of the rest of the world.

It wasn't a big deal. It wasn't like it would change her life or anything.

* * *

The day that the warfare started, Natsumi hadn't expected anything. Nobody had.

"Natsumi! I'm here!" Koyuki smiled, knocking on her friend's door. She carried her backpack for some late-night studying before a math test the next day. Natsumi had promised her they could have a study session.

"And I am here, too!" Dororo smiled by her side. He greeted Natsumi with a bow. "Take good care of Lady Koyuki. I will spend time with my leader and keep him from interrupting your study session," hevolunteered nicely.

"Thanks Dororo," Natsumi grinned. Dororo was probably the most honorable and nicest of the Keronians. And he truthfully understood privacy and leaving Koyuki and Natsumi to spend time together and study.

Dororo handed Koyuki a boxed dinner he had prepared for her so she could have fun at her sleepover study session.

Koyuki smiled at him and hugged him before heading off to Natsumi's room.

* * *

Natsumi scribbled on her homework, trying to focus on Koyuki and the math. Truthfully, she was quite distracted, but not by the terrible news that had been going on for the last week on most of the channels.

No, she was distracted by hot boys. Or in case one, Saburo.

 _I can't believe he's here in my house, right now!_ Natsumi knew she should be spending time with Koyuki, but she really wanted an excuse to go down into the base and see Saburo.

Sure, he wasn't technically spending time with her, he was hanging out with Kululu downstairs, but still... He was in her house!

But she had promised to hang out with Koyuki. She couldn't let herself be distracted by her crush, how he was going to spend the night there, too. How much she wanted to go see him...

"Natsumi? Do you know how to solve this problem?" Koyuki asked.

Natsumi was snapped out of her fantasies. She looked at the problem. "No. I don't." She shook her head. "M-maybe we could go ask someone else for some advice?" She hoped Koyuki took the bait and let her go see Saburo to ask for help. For him to tutor her one-on-one.

"That's a great idea, Natsumi!" Koyuki smiled. "Angol Mois's great at math!"

Natsumi frowned. She hadn't wanted Koyuki to suggest Angol Mois. She wanted to go hang out with Saburo! "Yeah... Mois." She frowned. "Maybe she's busy, though? Let's try to look in the text book for help," she decided, hoping to not add someone else into their study session. It was easier to get away and see Saburo if there were less people.

Koyuki nodded. "I guess you're right. She's probably with Keroro and Dororo, doing some invasion thing."

Natsumi nodded. She didn't need another distraction from Saburo. Also she didn't really want to do more math than necessary. Mois might have been a great tutor, but she got a little too happy and intense about tutoring. To motivate them, she'd probably break things if Natsumi or Koyuki failed a problem.

That, and Natsumi didn't know if she could deal with the headache of hearing Mois's bad idioms related to math problems.

She didn't even care that she was probably planning a bad invasion plan with Keroro.

* * *

Mois, Tamama, Keroro and Dororo all sat in a room together, planning stupid invasion plan things like Natsumi had indeed predicted. Giroro and Kululu were the only members of the platoon not there, being the only smart ones who were actually paying attention to the news and preparing for the worst. They had assumed everyone else was doing their own preparations, but since Keroro only watched cartoons and Dororo watched no television at all, they had no idea whatsoever about how bad the state of the world was in.

"So for the latest plan I have a few supplies I need. I was wondering if you and Mois could go out and get them for me?" Keroro asked Tamama.

"I can get them on my own! I don't want to go with her!" Tamama complained.

"Private... I need both of you to go. Carrying these things will take two sets of arms," Keroro pointed out, handing them a grocery list. "Can you guys go to alien street and get these things?"

Tamama pouted.

"Sure thing, Uncle!" Mois smiled. She didn't have a problem working with Tamama.

"I don't want to," Tamama complained.

"I'll play video games with you if you do it," Keroro bribed.

"Fine! But you have to play with only me!" he insisted.

"Deal." Keroro smiled and shook Tamama's hand. "See you both soon!"

The two of them left the room to go shopping.

* * *

Kululu typed on his computer, looking at the satellites carefully.

"Truth be told, Saburo. I didn't invite you over just to chat and hang out," he confided.

"I figured. What do you need?" Saburo asked.

"You been keeping up with the news?" he asked. Saburo nodded. "Well, from what I've learned hacking into military files and all, it's very likely that the tensions between countries might break... Worst-case scenario, a nuclear war might start. I've made sure that even in worst-case scenario this base and everybody in it will survive, and they should be able to live... relatively forever, if I keep things going properly. Ku, ku, ku. Hopefully a war won't start, but you never know with those Pekoponians," he chuckled. Saburo raised his eyebrow, slightly insulted. "Anyway... I'd just prefer for you to stay here until we're in the clear. That way if a war does start, you'll get the same safety as the rest of us in this base."

Saburo nodded. "So you invited me over basically to ensure my safety? That's sweet," he teased.

"Shut up." Kululu turned away, slightly embarrassed. From what he knew on his cameras and satellites, everybody would be safe now. It wouldn't take that long to reach Natsumi and Fuyuki and get them to the base.

If a war did start, he was ready.

* * *

After about thirty minutes of monitoring cameras, Kululu started frantically typing.

"Damn," he swore.

"What?" Saburo asked. He squinted his eyes.

"Four bombs headed this way. Apparently over in a few other countries, bombing has already started. America couldn't take the pressure. Apparently a nuclear war has started." He swore again. He quickly switched on an intercom for the entire Hinata house. Sirens sounded. "Everybody stay in the base!" he yelled. "Being above ground might be at risk for being blown up. A nuclear war has started and four bombs are headed for this city. This is not a drill," he yelled. "Giroro, retrieve Fuyuki and Natsumi... and Koyuki? I think she's up there too."

Saburo's expression clouded with worry.

"Is it going to be okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. The base should be completely fine, as long as a bomb doesn't drop straight onto the Hinata house. Giroro's been helping me make it impenetrable. It should be fine. Ku. I just hope that my idiot Captain has been preparing for this as much as I have."

Saburo nodded. Keroro wouldn't screw this up. It was serious.

* * *

As soon as Giroro heard Kululu's warning, he immediately bolted upstairs. There was no time to waste.

He had been prepared for this. He just hoped the Hinatas were, too. "Fuyuki, go downstairs. NOW," he ordered, slamming open the boy's door.

"Huh?" Fuyuki looked startled. He was frightened by Giroro's panicked expression, so he stopped playing on his computer and hurried downstairs.

"Get into the base. Hopefully Keroro will be waiting for you," he ordered. Fuyuki ran. Giroro nodded, glad that Fuyuki had gotten to safety.

He quickly looked around the house for anyone else, running at his top speed. He grabbed his cat from outside and headed to Natsumi's room.

"Natsumi! Koyuki! You need to head to the base, now!" he told both of them.

"Why?" Natsumi groaned. Koyuki nodded, wondering why they had to stop studying.

"A bomb is headed for this city. The base is safe." He handed Koyuki his cat to hold onto and grabbed Natsumi's hand.

"W-wait... What?" Natsumi's voice shook as Giroro practically dragged her to the base. She was so confused by what was happening.

But soon enough Koyuki, the cat, and she were safe.

Keroro was waiting for both of them, along with Fuyuki and Dororo. The doors locked behind them now that everybody was there.

Suddenly, everything shook. Natsumi kept Giroro's and her hands tightly together and covered her ears.

"Wh-what is going on?" she asked, terrified.

"I... I have no idea," Keroro admitted.

"Nuclear warfare has just started on the planet. Haven't any of you been paying attention to the news?" Giroro asked as things continued shaking. "Everybody outside this base might be exploding right now, for all we know."

"I... I sent Mois and Tamama out there, though!" Keroro yelled out, falling to the ground from the shaking. A second bomb had obviously landed. He tried to struggle toward the exit, but Dororo held him back.

"If we open it up now, we don't know if radiation will come in here," Dororo told him quietly. "We can only hope they're strong enough to find shelter and will come back on their own. Don't worry. Tamama is strong. He's in our platoon, after all."

Keroro nodded, his lip quivering. It had been an hour ago that they had left. He hoped that they came back soon.

"I'm good with dealing with bombs. Don't worry, all of you will be safe," Giroro promised.

Natsumi just felt confusion and fear. She didn't want to show how frightened she was, but with every shake, she felt her world changing.

She just sat there with everyone as every hour they felt like it was over and tried to get up, the shaking started again.

Giroro tried to keep them all calm, but they knew Kululu was the one with the cold hard facts of what the situation was.

They waited desperaretly for Saburo and him to come out of the lab.

It was midnight when Kululu came out of the lab. "I have bad news," he spoke.

* * *

"Can I go upstairs yet? Please?" Natsumi asked. She... She needed to recover from this. This was just an obstacle. Things would be back to normal soon.

"Wh-what's the news?" Keroro asked.

"Satellites are down. All means of communication to the outside world are dead, too. Including interplanetary ones," he reported. "I was able to see some cameras of the outside before they went out, though... Seeing what's happened throughout the world."

Saburo looked grim. His was was pale and he seemed nauseous.

"It bad?" Giroro asked.

"Yeah. Nuclear warfare has officially started on Pekopon. Everybody left is just fighting... The air is toxic up there. Unbreathable. Filled with radiation and things like that. The safest place at the moment is this base," he said.

"How... How did this happen?" Natsumi was so confused. So the news had been right?

"So... if we don't breathe, does that mean we can go upstairs?" Koyuki asked. She was prepared. Dororo shook his head.

"That... is not how it works. If the radiation so much as touches your skin, I doubt you'll survive. Ku, ku, ku," Kululu told her. Koyuki looked glum. "No worries. The base is well-stocked for this emergency. You'll all be safe, thanks to mine - mostly mine, and I guess to a lesser extent, Giroro's - efforts."

Giroro glared.

"Th-the people..." Saburo shuddered. "We saw them on the cameras... They just burned and melted. It's likely there aren't many survivors," he said, telling them the worse and more graphic part of the news.

Now everybody paled.

"Th-that... That can't be true!" Natsumi's eyes widened. She couldn't believe this. Her mother had been out there at work! Her friends... Yayoi and Satsuki. Her grandmother... They all lived happy, normal lives.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Natsumi," Giroro apologized. Keroro seemed to be shakily breathing, still trying to process what had happened and calm himself to take command of the situation. Dororo nodded, sorry for her loss.

"The facts are clear. Pekopon is pretty much dead. The apocalypse has happened, or is happening, something I'm sure Mois would be very jealous of. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed, for a moment seeing the lighthearted side of the situation. "But really, I tested the air with a tube in my lab. The atmosphere in inhospitable. Most likely, everybody is dead except for all of us."

Natsumi couldn't hide it any longer. A picture of her mother flashed through her head and she started sobbing.

"M-Mom was out there..." Fuyuki realized, seeing Natsumi cry. He started sobbing, too.

Keroro patted his hand, but there was nothing he could do.

This was the new life they all had. There was nothing they could do about it.

* * *

 **I feel like this is the first time I have featured Saburo and Koyuki more than Angol Mois. That probably won't last very long considering how much I love her.**

 **Please review!**


	3. Narrow Escape

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **A bit of Kululu this chapter. Umm...Not much else to say? I don't know why the pace is going so slowly. These chapter summaries took place before I went to a new chapter summary format.**

 **Finally edited. YAY!**

* * *

Natsumi recalled that the shaking hadn't stopped for an entire week. After a week, the bombs had truly stopped as the rest of the world halted, probably dead.

The shaking differed from major earthquake level, to just the sound of an explosion, but it was pretty constant.

It was on the second day that they all decided to talk about what was happening. Fuyuki and Natsumi hadn't stopped crying very much. Koyuki and Saburo cried less, due to not having as strong a connection with their families.

"H-how did this happen...?" Natsumi sniffled, trying to keep a strong expression on her face. Fuyuki didn't even try.

"Haven't you been keeping up with the news? Tensions between the countries and the entire world is at an all-time high," Giroro explained.

"I thought that was just paranoia. I didn't think anything would come of it!" she admitted.

"I didn't even know," Keroro volunteered. Kululu face-palmed. "What? I watch cartoons. Not boring Pekoponian news." He shrugged.

Dororo brought the four pekoponians calming tea. It was their world that was dying. Although he mourned Pekopon, he knew he had to be supportive of them instead of mourning for himself. He loved the planet, but he also loved the people inhabiting the planet, and four of them required his attention right now.

Koyuki took the tea and tried to get Natsumi to drink. Natsumi drank under Koyuki's supervision and nodded, trying to buck up.

"I'm... I'm good. I'm just so confused. I didn't see this coming. At all," she said again. "How long are we going to have to be in the base? Can it support all of us."

"As long as I'm doing regular upkeep, hypothetically we could stay here forever," Kululu told her. "And we can't go outside. I've mentioned this one hundred times now. The rest of the world is inhospitable." He bragged, "This place is the safest place in the world at the moment, thanks to my technology."

"So... y-you knew this was coming?" Fuyuki tried to get his voice stop shaking.

"Yep. I didn't know _when_ it was coming, when the tension between countries would break, but I knew it was coming. That's the reason I invited Saburo over, actually. He's a smart guy, but without alien technology around him I doubt he'd survive." Kululu glanced at him.

Saburo grinned. "He saved my life."

Fuyuki stood up and let out a loud scream. "You knew this was coming and you didn't prepare us?"

"We prepared the base best we could." Giroro told him, crossing his arms. "I'm sorry about Aki. But she probably would have gone to work, anyway, if we asked her to stay home. I actually did tell her to stay home, but she wanted to work," he admitted. "I expected Keroro to prepare you... But it seems he didn't know."

"Sure is lucky that Dororo and Koyuki came over, huh?" Keroro laughed nervously. They had dodged a bullet there living in the place with the least technology. Dororo frowned at him. If Keroro had kept up with the news, Tamama might have still been there with them.

"Why'd you just invite Saburo? If you knew this was coming, why didn't you invite Momoka too?" Fuyuki yelled. "She... She was out there too... She was probably a target. Her house might have been bombed..." He let out another choked out sobbed. "Why... Why didn't you warn her? Why isn't she with us, Kululu?" he asked angrily. "Why does your friend get to live and not mine?"

Kululu looked a little shocked. "As... As Giroro said, I thought the Captain would deal with inviting everyone. I thought he was in on the plan. He's the leader here, not me. I'm not responsible for your lives."

Keroro looked down glumly. As if he could feel _worse_.

Natsumi looked over at Fuyuki's angry expression as a sense of realization overcame her. At least half of his constant tears were over Momoka. Momoka, his friend and possibly the girl he even loved, had been out there and was most likely dead if Kululu's information was correct.

She looked over at Saburo and Koyuki. She had been lucky. Both her friend and her crush were here, and alive. She had no right to be crying, compared to Fuyuki.

People she cared about had survived. Fuyuki's hadn't.

Natsumi's crying seized as she saw her light of hope. She had been lucky. She needed to stop moping and realize how lucky she was.

"Thank you for at least trying, Kululu," she told him. "You saved Saburo, at least."

"I just assumed you'd all be here." Kululu glanced at Keroro, angrily. "Before I find out accidentally, what else did you screw up?" he asked it in a joking manner, like he didn't expect an answer.

"Well..." Keroro opened his mouth to speak.

"Never mind. I suspect I don't want to hear it." Kululu covered his headphones.

Keroro closed his mouth and then opened it again in a quizzical manner. "Kululu. Is there anyway to contact Keron to get them to get us a spaceship to bring us out of here?"

Giroro grinned. Keroro did have good ideas sometimes in dire situations. Although the base was fine for now, he doubted that everyone would be fine living in it forever. And he didn't expect that Pekopon would heal itself very quickly from the radiation outside. If Keroro's lectures on sci-fi taught him anything, it took thousands of years for that to happen.

"Did you not hear _anything_ when I told you the communication lines are down? There is no way to contact anyone. I have a cell phone, but it doesn't contact out of the planet or _in_ the planet, since all the satellites are down," Kululu said.

"That's... bad," Keroro frowned.

"It's not all bad. There is a way to contact Keron." Kululu grinned. Keroro's eyes gleamed in optimism.

"What is it?" Giroro asked.

"We have a communications officer, might I remind you. Mois's phone can make universal calls, despite satellites. That, and she works better with communication than I do. She might be able to fix what's broken and - " Kululu was cut off by Keroro's frown.

"Remember when you told me not to tell you about what I screwed up on?" Keroro asked. Kululu nodded slowly.

"Please tell me she's in her room sleeping." Kululu slowly realized what Keroro was about to say. He had assumed Mois would be in the base... She was usually in the base, so he hadn't told her of the oncoming danger, either, but now he was getting worried.

"I... I kind of sent Tamama and her out shopping. And... they haven't returned yet," Keroro said quietly.

Kululu frowned. "Damn. I knew you could screw up something. You sent two people out of the house?"

Keroro nodded. Kululu thought for a moment. "I don't know about Tamama. We can only hope for the best for him. But Mois's probably okay. Her body is made to stand all sorts of harsh environments. Radiation at this level shouldn't harm her at all. She's probably the only one who can actually survive the atmosphere." Kululu talked quickly, fact and hopefullness meshing together. "As long as she doesn't get hit directly by something like by an entire bomb she'll be fine. And it's very unlikely that she'll be hit. She could see it coming and fly away or something."

Keroro nodded.

Fuyuki still was angry. "So she's probably okay on the outside, but you _still_ forgot to invite Momoka here?"

Keroro pulled Fuyuki gently down to the ground to sit. "Being angry won't solve anything. I'm worried about my companions, too. Don't worry, Fuyuki. I'm here," Keroro calmly told him.

Fuyuki looked at his friend and started crying again. He wanted to hope for the best for Tamama, Mois, and Momoka, but he was so scared for Momoka.

Natsumi still sat in shock. Koyuki chatted with Dororo, still trying to convince him to let her go out and help people as Dororo tried to explain to Koyuki what radiation was. She had never been taught.

"Natsumi? Are you okay?" Giroro asked. "I'm sorry, I should have told you..."

"I would have been just like Mom." She shook her head. "I saw the news I thought it was just paranoia. It wasn't your fault."

"Kululu and I shouldn't have relied on Keroro. It's just... what if Dororo and Koyuki hadn't come over? What if they had been out there?" he asked her.

"I suppose my math test saved their lives," Natsumi tried to joke. Giroro laughed.

"It would be the first time math saved anything," he smiled. Natsumi smiled a little bit, too. Laughter really was the best medicine.

She was glad Giroro was down there with her, and she was secretly glad most of the frogs were safe.

There was a lot of mourning of humanity to do, but at the moment she didn't have to be too strong. Giroro and Kululu seemed to know what they were doing, and even the stupid frog seemed to be stepping up and acting leaderly, calming Fuyuki down.

She was glad that they were all safe and together. She could at least be happy about that and think of the best.

She smiled, and after a full thirty six hours, she finally went to sleep.

* * *

"So we'll be fine?" Giroro whispered quietly to Kululu as most of the Pekoponians slept. Dororo had curled up next to Koyuki, trying to keep her inside the base. Only Keroro hadn't fallen asleep, and his eyes were still glued to the base door, waiting for Tamama and Angol Mois to return.

He hoped they knocked, because the door was currently locked.

"Unless a bomb hits this exact house, we'll be safe," Kululu told him. "Not even my technology would be able to stand that."

Giroro cleaned a weapon "And... would we know if a bomb was heading this way?" Giroro asked.

"The louder the explosions get, the closer they are to this house. It's not rocket science. But I seriously doubt that there would be a coincidence and one would head for this location. If it did, our luck would be seriously bad." Kululu narrowed his eyes and looked at Giroro. "Actually... you do attract falling objects quite a bit. Ku. Guess it's not that unlikely."

"Hey!" Giroro growled.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion. The loudest yet. It jolted Dororo and all four pekoponians awake, the sharp pain of the noise entering their ears.

No shaking accompanied the explosion, though. Kululu quickly started doing calculations on his computer and pressed a button to pick up the frequency of the explosion.

Giroro tried to say something, but nobody could hear him. It took a full hour for the ringing to stop.

Finally when they could hear again, Giroro yelled his question, not used to the volume of his own voice. "What was that? Was that the level of loudness you were talking about?"

"Yeah... Ku." Kululu told him.

"But... we're not dead? Did it hit the house next to us?" Giroro asked. Kululu shook his head and turned his computer screen toward him.

"From my calculations, that bomb hit _directly_ above us. But since there was no shaking, it probably didn't impact this house. Meaning it must have exploded in the air. Ku ku ku. We just narrowly escaped death," Kululu said.

"It... It would have killed us if it hadn't exploded above us?" Natsumi asked.

"It was probably a faulty bomb," Kululu explained. "Or some shrapnel from some other bomb hit it and detonated it. Something like that."

"Will another one hit this same place if one was headed here?" Saburo asked.

"Not likely. You could say, lighting doesn't strike the same place twice? Ku, ku, ku. I'm hilarious." Kululu laughed at himself. When he saw nobody else was laughing, he stopped. "We should be safe, though. Giroro's unluckiness didn't kill us this time. Don't worry."

Giroro frowned. He was not excited about the isolation in the base he'd have to share with Kululu.

But the rest of them waited. The small shaking and small explosions finally seized at the end of the week. And they all felt in their hearts that it was finally over.

Natsumi looked around the base glumly. Her new life had finally started. And unlike Fuyuki, who was still crying, she knew she had to be strong.

It was time to adapt instead of living in the past.

She needed to be there for her friends.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	4. Alien Tickling

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Here's another chapter yo.**

* * *

Natsumi looked up at the ceiling blankly. It had been only a few days since the bombings had finally stopped, but she knew this was her new life now.

 _I don't want to live like this,_ she thought to herself. Dororo was constantly guarding the door to the outside, since Koyuki still hadn't really coped with the fact that she couldn't get out. There was no way to get out of the base and Natsumi knew what the frogs were talking about, about the air being poison and going out being suicide, that it was all real.

 _I don't want to live out the rest of my life like a caged rat,_ she thought to herself. She wasn't the type to live underground and safely. She wanted to fight for her world, like a warrior.

After the danger of them dying had waned, coming to terms with the situation was difficult for all four of the humans. They knew it was likely their friends and family were dead, they knew it was likely that they'd live out the rest of their life in the same boring place of the base, and they didn't like it.

Natsumi didn't like it at all. She knew the stress would wane at her sanity eventually. It would get to all of them.

But she knew also a part of her shouldn't complain. She was alive. Her friends were around her. She wasn't lost out there like her mother, Mois and Tamama were.

She should be happy.

But she wasn't. She didn't want this.

* * *

It was hard to think positively about them being the last four humans on Earth. It was doubtful that anyone else had the alien technology that they did, so from what she had heard from Kululu they _were_ likely the last four humans.

She wanted to think positively, to take charge, but she was still in shock herself.

There was one person who had remained the same from the very beginning, though, the one person who motivated her to get stronger.

Fuyuki. Fuyuki had continued his sobbing since he learned Momoka and Aki were likely dead. She hadn't seen him smile since their imprisonment.

She had to fix it. To make it better. And if it meant faking a smile or optimism, she would do it. Anything for her brother.

"Come on, Fuyuki. How about we do your occult club here? You can lecture me about some planets I don't know about." Keroro had gotten to Fuyuki first, though, and was right by the side of his best friend. He was constantly watching over him and helping him.

Natsumi appreciated his effort. She really did. But she was slightly angry... Jealous of it, too. _How can he smile like that?_ Keroro had a constant smile on his face, constant optimism.

It infuriated her. He might have been lazy enough to be fine lounging in the base all day, but she sure wasn't!

"Oh, lady Natsumi!" Keroro noticed her. "You want to spend some time with us?"

Fuyuki looked up glumly.

"Sure," Natsumi shrugged. She needed to cheer up her brother. Compared to him, she was lucky. Koyuki was with her, and she now had an extra opportunity to be with her crush, Saburo. He, however, was taking this a lot worse.

She glanced at Keroro as he continued soothingly talking to him, and getting Fuyuki to talk about his occult findings from memory, since a lot of his research was upstairs. She was going to wipe Keroro's smug face in the dirt.

She was going to cheer up Fuyuki more than the stupid frog could! She narrowed her eyes and grinned. She wrapped her arm around Fuyuki.

"Tell me about alien tickling, Fuyuki," Natsumi requested.

"Tickling?" Fuyuki asked. "I... I don't know much about it."

"Well, then my tickles will send you out of this world!" Natsumi jumped on him and started tickling. Fuyuki started laughing and smiling.

"S-sis... Stop!" he laughed, finally pushing her off. He looked a lot happier.

"Well-played, Lady Natsumi." Keroro bowed respectfully. "But as Fuyuki's best friend, I will bring the biggest smiles to his face." Taking a squirt gun out of nowhere, he started squirting Fuyuki. Fuyuki started laughing as Natsumi tried to wrangle the gun out of Keroro's hand.

"You have to play evenly, Lady Natsumi." Keroro tossed Natsumi an extra gun.

"You'll regret this," Natsumi grinned. They started squirting each other and laughing. Fuyuki watched gleefully, eventually getting squirted by both of them.

Soon enough, they were all very wet and on the ground, laughing like children. It was one of the first times since the bombings that Natsumi had laughed.

Fuyuki was laughing so much that he was crying. "Sis... Sarge... You're hilarious!" he cried.

Natsumi smiled at his happiness. Even if the stupid frog had helped, at least their mission had been complete. Fuyuki had a moment of happiness. And that was all that mattered to her.

She kissed Fuyuki on the forehead, and looked at him happily. "I'm glad we're in this together. Don't worry about them, bro... They'll be back. Mom's tougher than a couple of bombs. And Momoka wouldn't let herself be beaten by those things." Natsumi gave him some false optimism. "Just keep researching the occult and get prepared for your club. They'll be happy to see you when they find us."

Fuyuki nodded. When his sister said it, he honestly believed her. He smiled, filled with hope and joy.

* * *

Sometimes she butted heads with Keroro over trying to cheer up Fuyuki more, and although she put on a false front of hating him, she was honestly happy to have him there. But he was a lot more happy than she was, although she didn't know why.

She opened a journal that Giroro had given her. He had told her that it helped coping with imprisonment to have a task that you dedicated yourself to everyday. Natsumi had decided to keep the journal.

 _Day 16,_ she wrote.

 _The stupid frog continues to remain optimistic about our situation. I don't know how he can do it. I've even seen Dororo slip up and be a little down in the dumps._

 _Although I act like I'm fine in front of Fuyuki, I'm really not. I don't want to be imprisoned here for the rest of my life, even if it might be safe._

 _Does the stupid frog have some sort of plan? Is that how he's able to keep so happy._

 _Either way, I'm glad he can be the happy one for the both of us. If he weren't here, I don't know what Fuyuki would do. He's giving Fuyuki something to focus on, even if it is his love of aliens. And that thing might be enough. Fuyuki's sobbing throughout the nights has finally stopped, to my knowledge._

 _I'm glad I guess that the stupid frog is here with me. I guess his idiocy is good for something, even if it is being constantly happy,_ she finished writing, closing the book.

She needed something to focus on now to pass time, something to focus her mind and body. Just like Fuyuki was using the occult she needed a focus too.

And she knew exactly what it would be.

 _Saburo._ She smiled. Although she didn't like to think of this as being an opportunity to get closer to him, she at least needed something good to come out of this situation. And being able to spend more time with Saburo and perhaps even confess her feelings seemed like a perfect thing.

She went to Saburo, super excited to just spend some time with him.

* * *

Saburo mostly seemed bored by the new situation he was placed in. Kululu was busy so he wasn't hanging out with him, but Kululu insisted that at least Saburo was safe.

"Hey, Natsumi." He waved as Natsumi approached him. This was enough to cause Natsumi to blush. Just him saying the words "hey."

"H-hi... Saburo!" she smiled, waving awkwardly. Saburo nodded, confused by her stuttering.

"So... w-want to maybe walk around the base... Just the t-two of us?" Natsumi suggested.

Saburo raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "The base is pretty boring. Thank you, though." He didn't really want to walk around doing nothing.

Natsumi's heart fell, disappointed. "How... How are you faring? Worried about anyone on the outside?"

"That Tamama guy was pretty funny," Saburo murmured. He wasn't really taking this seriously.

"At least we're in this together." Natsumi tried to make light conversation.

"I suppose it's better then being dead." Saburo shrugged. "Anyway I'm going to skateboard down the halls or something. Catch you later." He smiled and waved.

Natsumi bashfully waved and blushed. _He said he'd see me later! Oh wait, we're living together now!_

She smiled but internally slapped herself at how badly she had interacted with him. Only one person had seen their conversation and how enamored Natsumi was with Saburo - Giroro.

* * *

Giroro sighed as he saw Natsumi's smile descend into a frown as Saburo left. He knew she had a giant crush on him, but he had still sort of hoped that he could have bonded a little with Natsumi himself.

Now they were imprisoned together, it was likely that Natsumi would get closer and closer to Saburo.

Giroro hesitantly headed over to Natsumi, careful to hide the flowers he had brought for her. Now wasn't the right time, so he tossed them to the side before she could see them.

He was lucky Dororo and Koyuki were taking care of a garden where he could pick flowers for Natsumi. They both said they had wanted to bring a little bit of Pekopon alive again.

"Hello Giroro." She noticed him stepping over to her.

"Natsumi," he curtly greeted. There was a silence between them for a moment, before Giroro cleared his throat. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked.

"I never wanted this for you... to be imprisoned like this. I know a warrior like you won't like this confined space," he said. "I'm glad you're over the initial shock, though. Although it's just going to get worse from here as things set in."

"I know. But I need to keep strong for Fuyuki," she insisted.

"You know... You don't have to be strong all the time. You can let Koyuki and Saburo handle coping the most for a bit. I mean, they both seem pretty solid about this, since they didn't lose anyone that important to them," Giroro pointed out. "It's all right to care. To be sad."

Natsumi nodded. Giroro's lessons as always were helpful. She smiled at him, letting a tear trickle down her cheek as she thought about her mother. "Thanks."

Giroro nodded, smiling back at her. He was glad he had been able to help.

* * *

On the way back to her new room, she saw Koyuki working on her garden with Dororo. Koyuki was dealing with this better, trying to already heal the earth.

"The seeds will take a few weeks to grow, but nothing good comes without being patient," Dororo told her. Koyuki smiled at him.

"I guess this is better than going outside. As long as I have you, Natsumi, and this garden, it isn't so bad," Koyuki smiled. She still thought she could probably fight off radiation, whatever monster that was, but Dororo was insistent that she couldn't.

Natsumi smiled. At least Koyuki was dealing well. She closed the door to her room to think about the frogs.

They were all dealing with things semi-okay. But her mind went back to Keroro, who was still dealing with things the best.

She felt suspicious. If Saburo hadn't told her he had seen the dead bodies, she would have thought it was all a ploy by Keroro to imprison them for the invasion.

But sadly, Saburo had seen the bodies.

So she went to sleep still suspicious about Keroro.

* * *

"We have to go out!" Keroro's loud yelling awoke Natsumi and she got out of her bed. Sneaking out, she opened her door and saw down the dark path a light on in the room next door. She could see the frogs' silhouettes. They looked to be arguing.

She tip-toed around the hallway to look into the room. No one else had been woken up by the arguing except her.

She saw Keroro's eyes were red and his face was covered in tears. He looked angry and sad. This was more negative emotion than she had seen him express in the past weeks at all.

"I told you we can't leave!" Giroro shouted. "It would be stupid for us to go out!"

"We can't leave him!" Keroro yelled back. "It's been seventeen days! He's not back yet. We have to go out! I'm not leaving him out there alone, not when I was the one to send him out."

"Keroro..." Dororo tried to be soothing, to put his hand on his friend's shoulder, but Keroro shook him off. He was huffing heavily and started crying.

"We have to go. He's probably lost and alone. I have to save him. We've waited to long already," he told them.

"It's suicide to go outside, Keroro," Giroro reminded him. "We have to put our faith in Tamama that he's found shelter and survived."

"But..." Keroro looked unhappy. "I don't want to leave a man behind."

"Keroro, this is idiocy. I know you don't want to hurt Tamama, I know we should save him, but the rest of us dying won't help anyone." Dororo tried to talk some sense into Keroro.

Keroro just shook his head. He wouldn't hear any of Dororo's words.

"Kululu... please talk some sense into him. You're the one who knows the situation with the atmosphere and the air," Dororo pleaded.

"It probably won't have the same affect on Keronians as it does on Pekoponians. All the research done about their radiation has been about the affects on Pekoponian bodies, so there is a possibility that we would live if we went out there and that Tamama is still alive, especially if he found shelter for a while." Kululu gave Keroro hope instead of talking him out of it. "I agree with the Captain here that we should go out and look for Mois and Tamama."

Keroro beamed. "See? Kululu's smart! He says we should go!"

Giroro and Dororo glared at Kululu for encouraging Keroro's behavior.

"We should go." Kululu agreed with Keroro. "It's wrong to leave them out there."

"They'll be fine!" Giroro insisted.

Keroro glared. "They won't be. They haven't come back yet. If you won't go with me, I'll go out on my own."

Natsumi stepped out of the shadows with that bit of knowledge. "You can't."

"Lady Natsumi?" Keroro looked shocked. "Did you hear all of that?"

Natsumi nodded. She felt like she understood Keroro a little better now. It wasn't that he was being suspicious. He was faking a smile, just like her for Fuyuki. He was worried about his friends, too.

"Fuyuki needs you. You're his friend. If you left, it would break him. Please... I'm begging you, stay. For my brother," she begged.

Keroro looked a bit guilty. He knew Fuyuki needed him. "But the Private needs me, too."

"He'll be fine," Giroro reminded. "Kululu said radiation didn't affect us the same way, remember? He'll be back here eventually." He nodded reassuringly. "So... stay. At least for now, Keroro."

Keroro looked thoughtful, like he was making an extremely hard decision. "Fine. We'll stay. For now. But if the private doesn't come back soon, I'll go out for him. I'll find him," he vowed.

Kululu looked disappointed at Keroro's decision, but he knew there was no changing it. He glared at Natsumi a bit, but Natsumi just looked relieved.

She felt like she understood Keroro a little bit more. They were all struggling. Even Keroro. She related to that.

And she was glad she was with her friends. She didn't need to be strong all the time, she could be sad over the people she lost. Just like Keroro was.

Everyone didn't like it there, and she could understand that.

* * *

 **Please review.**


	5. Grumpy Reality

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **I think the flashback chapter finally ends next chapter. Do not fret. Just your average Gironatsu stuff this chapter.**

* * *

It had been a month and a half of being contained in the base. And Giroro was grumpy.

He crossed his arms as he glanced over at Natsumi flirting with Saburo again. She was laughing and smiling at him and he was making polite conversation with her.

They had really begun to grow closer, and naturally Giroro was jealous.

Sure, he had spent time with Natsumi too, but there was only so many times a guy could ask a girl to watch him shoot guns in a shooting gallery. The skills needed for a gun weren't that necessary in the base, and although it had been fun the first two hundred and six times, it was the only thing Giroro was really asking Natsumi to do with him, and he suspected she was getting bored.

Her attention was always focused on Saburo. Sure, she spent time with other people too - Koyuki, Keroro and Fuyuki, and him - but she was constantly focused on Saburo and sometimes even slipped up about how hot he was when she was with one of them.

 _They're getting closer. They might actually get together at this rate,_ Giroro realized. He could imagine years down the line them getting married as two of the last humans in the world. They would ask Giroro to be the preacher in his terrible fantasy and he'd have to watch them get married. Then they would head off to repopulate the world together with Pekoponian children.

Giroro tried not to cry in jealousy and anger. He had to just accept the facts that this was coming. But he didn't want it to happen.

He loved Natsumi. He had hoped, perhaps, she would see that they would work well together, too, but she wasn't really focused on anything except Saburo. And naturally he was very jealous of that fact.

He couldn't impress her at all. Whenever he tried to compliment her about how much she meant to him, she always brought up Saburo. Sometimes when she didn't bring up Saburo, Koyuki would jump in, interrupting them.

 _Because not only are we trapped with one of my love rivals, we're trapped with two,_ Giroro recalled bitterly. Koyuki also wanted Natsumi's heart, and although she wasn't nearly as jealous as him, she still was trying to impress Natsumi, same as him.

"Aren't Natsumi and Saburo such good friends?" she had told Giroro one day. Giroro tried not to snicker. The poor, poor oblivious girl.

"You just keep thinking that. It's easier that way," he told her. Koyuki nodded, confused as to what he meant, but still thinking that.

There were other Natsumi-related things Giroro did besides trying to impress her. His primary concern wasn't their future together, but her safety. And although she was physically safe, he was still worried for her mental safety.

Imprisonment, even if it was safe, waned on a person. It got to them. Sure, he had practiced for hiding out in a bomb shelter alone in training school, but Natsumi didn't have that experience.

He constantly tried to monitor her mood. Try to not let it get to her, keep her happy and introduce new things about the base to her. Dororo's garden was a good source of plant life to keep up her mood, and he was trying to get his cat to like Natsumi more (something that had not succeed very much) so that she could pet her to relieve stress, but neither of those things seemed to work much for Natsumi.

In fact, the thing that helped her mood the most seemed to be taking charge in helping out the rest of the team. She was a warrior, even in imprisonment. And Giroro was proud of her.

Fuyuki, who - from what he had heard from Kululu, should have been the one having the easiest time being in one place underground - was dealing the most harshly, throwing himself into his occult research and writing everything he knew from memory so as to distract himself from the loss of his mom and Momoka. Koyuki was dealing the second most harshly, not meant to stay in one place either. She was meant for forests, to hop from tree to tree. But there was nothing like that there.

Dororo was trying his hardest to help her, but all he could do was empathize with her pain.

Saburo, Giroro wasn't sure how he was doing. He seemed fine. Adaptable, but mostly bored.

Still, Natsumi was doing the best. She was fighting against the hopelessness, and he was proud of her. He just wished she'd spend less time with Saburo.

Just seeing them together made him grumpy.

* * *

He went to Kululu, hoping to convince him to distract his friend a little bit. It was Kululu who invited Saburo there, and he was hoping he could contain him.

Kululu spent most of his days in his lab, like usual. He didn't seem like he had changed much.

Giroro opened the door to the lab, seeing wires and computers strung around everywhere. Kululu clutched something small in his hands, a cellular device that he was typing on.

He didn't even notice Giroro step into his lab.

 _I guess he's really trying to fix things,_ Giroro thought. The communications channels were still down, to his knowledge, and that meant no way to call for a spaceship to get them all out of this dead planet. Getting the communication back up was a major priority that Kululu seemed to be working incredibly hard toward.

"Pick up. Come on." Kululu seemed irritated as he put the phone to his headphone. After a minute, he tossed against the wall. It fell to the ground with a pile of other broken cell phones.

"Not going well?" Giroro asked. Kululu turned around.

"Those are all supposed to be emergency phones," he pointed. "Even in an emergency where communication is down, I linked them to the one place that would still get reception. But... they aren't working," he admitted.

Giroro nodded. It looked like Kululu had a tough job ahead of him.

"What do you want, Giroro?" Kululu asked, sitting back in his chair, knowing that Giroro must have wanted something if he came to see him.

Giroro straightened up to give his request to Kululu. "You need to contain Saburo, keep him busy. Entertain him. He's been wandering off to Natsumi a little too much. He's distracting her from her goals and the fight - " He couldn't finish, because Kululu stopped him.

"What the hell?" Kululu asked, blowing up at him. "That's what you interrupted my work for?"

"Yes," Giroro told him.

"That's incredibly stupid. Natsumi and Saburo have no goals while they're down here. There is no fight. I'm not Saburo's babysitter. He can do whatever he wants with Natsumi. It's neither of our concerns, Giroro. It's their lives," Kululu hissed.

"But..." Giroro trailed off. He knew this was true. But honestly he was hoping to be a little selfish. He just wanted Saburo distracted.

"You just want Natsumi to yourself. And that's not my issue. What is my issue, though, is you bothering my friend because you don't have the courage to tell Natsumi about how you feel. Ku. And by the way, it was pretty underhanded to go to me to separate Natsumi and Saburo when they're doing nothing wrong. Or even solving it yourself. Ku, ku, ku. It was something _I_ would do, Giroro. It was just that underhanded like that!"

Giroro rubbed his arm. Now he really felt bad. "I... I should have seen that it was wrong. You're right." He had no right to choose Natsumi's path for her.

"Also, I'm way too busy to solve your petty love life problems," Kululu muttered. He seemed grumpier than Giroro.

"Are you making a space ship? Fixing communication lines?" Giroro asked, slightly interested. Kululu was a valuable asset to getting out of there.

"I'd like to, but to do anything on that level, I would need the rest of my tech team. And you know what I don't have? The rest of my tech team! Since Mois won't answer her stupid phone, I can't fix anything. She was a valuable asset to helping me out and fixing this stuff," Kululu growled.

Giroro glanced at the pile of phones. Had Kululu been trying to call Mois? Was that why he was grumpy? "Why not ask for help, if the work requires two people? Saburo's smart. He could be the rest of your tech team," Giroro pointed out.

"He doesn't know alien technology like Mois. She knows my system and has her own skills that are helpful. She's the communications officer. Saburo can't fix communication lines," Kululu explained. "But... she hasn't answered any time I've called. Her phone is never off. Never. And yet, she hasn't answered once. It doesn't even go to voice mail. It just says the line is dead." He looked pale.

Giroro's mouth opened for a moment as he realized why Kululu was so stressed. He was worried. He had been trying desperately to contact Mois, but no matter what he did, he couldn't get through. That was what he had been working on in his lab, and why he hadn't been spending much time with Saburo.

He was incredibly worried. It was weird to see Kululu worried, and even weirder to see him very stressed out due to his own helplessness.

It was actually kind of pitiful. Giroro walked over a bit to Kululu, rather awkwardly. He put his hand on the back of Kululu's chair instead of his shoulder to offer support.

"She'll be fine. You said so yourself that the radiation wouldn't hurt her, remember?" he reminded her, trying to smile a bit. "She might just be out of calling distance. She's probably with Tamama and is fine. There is no reason why she wouldn't be," he tried to reassure him. "There's no reason to be like Keroro and think dangerous things about them."

"Then... Then why hasn't she answered me?" Kululu asked blankly, his voice barely above a whisper.

Giroro didn't know. He took his hand off of Kululu's chair and backed away as he saw how weak Kululu looked, how utterly helpless and sad he was.

"Why isn't she back yet, Giroro?" Kululu asked again, a hint of anger went through his voice. "She should have been back by now."

"I don't know. I don't know why she isn't here," Giroro told him. Kululu's expression of anger faded to that of distress.

Giroro backed away toward the door. Now wasn't a good time to bother him. "I'm sorry about being underhanded. I shouldn't have bothered you about Saburo. I'm sorry," he apologized. It was weird to see Kululu's weaker side. "At... At least he's here with you, right?" Giroro tried to brighten the mood.

"I should have told her, too. I didn't prepare enough. I thought the Captain would be smart. That was the biggest mistake I made. He's never smart." Even sad, Kululu was still a jerk.

Giroro, out of respect, left the room. It seemed like Kululu was about to cry, and he knew that would be awkward to see.

He had to deal with this himself. Kululu was right about that.

* * *

He saw that everyone had kind of gone in pairs of interaction, except him. Keroro and Fuyuki were always together, and so were Dororo and Koyuki. Natsumi and Saburo were always spending time together... Perhaps that wasn't something he could stop. Perhaps he'd just have to live with their love affair.

He wanted to tell her how he felt before she made a final decision, though. She deserved to have all the options set out before her, even if she didn't choose him.

He wanted to tell her how he felt.

"Natsumi, I have something to tell you. May I speak to you alone?" he asked her. He was going to be brave. He had to be.

"Sure?" Natsumi nodded, leaving Saburo's side for a moment.

Giroro took a deep breath, blushing. "I... I think you're amazing," he admitted. "You're a warrior, even down here. You're strong, a formidable opponent and I... I... lo-" He was redder than he usually was.

Natsumi just stared at him blankly as he stuttered terribly.

 _I can't do this. I'm sorry, Natsumi. I'm weak... I have plenty of time to gather my courage. I don't have to tell her now,_ Giroro realized. "I just wanted to tell you that, even though it may seem like we're all cowering underground and using the safety of the base to protect us, the fight isn't over, and you've kept strong this entire time like a true warrior. I admire that," he said instead.

Natsumi smiled. She wasn't sure what that blushing and stuttering was about, but maybe it was hard for Giroro to give people compliments. "Thanks, partner." She gave him a light punch on the arm, as buddies do. "And... thanks for looking after me down here. I know I'm not as used to hiding out from bombs as you are, and it really means a lot to me that you've been giving me tips on how to improve my mental state. I'm sure I would have broken long ago if you weren't helping me keep strong." She smiled.

Giroro blushed. _She appreciates me!_ Even if she got together with Saburo, that was enough.

"Now, want to race me? I'm not about to let my body get out of tip-top shape down here," she smiled.

Giroro grinned. "Always. I'll always race you."

And the two launched off. Of course, Natsumi won, but it was still great.

And Giroro was happy.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	6. They Never Returned

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

 **Smut this chapter. Sorry. It's Gironatsu smut though.**

 **So if you don't like smut please just skip it.**

* * *

Three months had passed. They were all attempting to stay sane with their imprisonment.

Each of them hoped for the day Tamama, Angol Mois, or Aki would knock on the base door to get in. But it never happened.

Nobody ever knocked.

Sometimes Natsumi felt that they were dead, that they were truthfully the last ones left, but she knew she had to hope for the best.

Hope was all they had, after all.

* * *

Luckily, after three months, things had progressed into steady regulation for them all. They all had normal things they did everyday, and they were beginning to find a rhythm to their new lives.

 _I'm going to confess to Saburo,_ Natsumi decided. She had gotten closer and closer to her crush throughout the days. They had made causal small conversation almost everyday.

She knew eventually they'd probably be together. The odds were in their favor! They were two out of four of the last humans alive. They'd probably get married and have like a million kids.

 _I'll tell him tomorrow._ She forced confidence into herself. She needed to set a date so she didn't chicken out. She could tell him of her feelings. She really could!

She wasn't the only one hoping to confess her feelings tomorrow, though. Koyuki was, as well. She watched Natsumi from afar. _We're two of the last humans left. I'm sure I can tell Natsumi how I feel. Tomorrow would be a perfect time._ They had an entire lifetime ahead of them. And Koyuki was ignorant of the love rivals.

Natsumi nodded to herself thinking about Saburo. She had no idea of the feelings her best friend had for her.

* * *

Keroro was thinking of more important things than confessing, unlike Natsumi. Three months had passed.

"They're not coming back on their own," Keroro told his platoon quietly. Dororo nodded, finally seeing Keroro's point.

"We can't leave them out there. We have to find them. And just like I promised, if you won't go out with me, I'll go on my own," Keroro insisted.

"I won't let you," Dororo told him, putting his hand on Keroro's. He smiled at his friend. "We're a platoon. We go together."

"We won't leave a man behind," Giroro agreed finally. "We either need to retrieve the body, or save him from whatever occurred out there."

"The atmosphere should be doing better after three months," Kululu reported. "Give me a few days and I can make radiation suits for us. They should buy us at least a little time. And as I said before, we shouldn't die out there. We're Keronians, not Pekoponians. We'll react differently to the radiation."

"Still best to be safe, right?" Giroro shrugged. It was just an average field mission. They just had to be quick about it. "But we shouldn't bring the Pekoponians."

"They'll die, unlike us," said Kululu.

Keroro grinned at his platoon. "Thanks for coming with me, guys."

"It's been three months. Waiting any longer would be idiocy. It's clear that he's not coming back on his own, and we have to help our platoon member out," Giroro nodded. He wanted to be by Natsumi's side, but he knew he couldn't betray his platoon.

"I wanted to go out for them the very first week, if you remember correctly. Ku. I wouldn't leave you to do it alone." Kululu offered support too.

"We're friends. Nobody should be forgotten about," Dororo smiled warmly. Keroro hugged them all.

"How long will it be until the suits are done?" he asked Kululu.

"One week. We should say our good-byes to the Pekoponians just in case something goes wrong, but it'll only be one more week of waiting," Kululu told him.

Keroro nodded. He could last a week.

* * *

They held a meeting for the Pekoponians. "We'll be leaving in a week to locate Mois and Tamama," Keroro told them. "We'll be fine. We'll have radiation suits that should protect us for a little bit. But... you won't be able to come with us. Our bodies are built differently than yours. We'll deal better with the atmosphere out there. You would die out there, we wouldn't," he explained. "We'll be gone for a bit, but I promise we'll be back soon!"

The Pekoponians listened and nodded. They didn't doubt Keroro's words, but some were a little worried. Namely Fuyuki.

"Sarge..." Fuyuki threw himself on Keroro in a hug. "You promise you'll come back?" he asked. "Pinky swear?"

"I promise," Keroro grinned, putting his pinky around Fuyuki's. They shook pinkies.

"You... won't get hurt like Momoka, right? And when you're back, we can research the occult, right?" Fuyuki asked.

Keroro nodded. "And maybe Tamama knows what happened to Momoka," he told Fuyuki. "Maybe we'll get lucky? Who knows! Maybe he's even hanging out with her and that's why he's not with us."

Fuyuki grinned. He hoped so. That would be the ideal situation.

"I hope that's the case," he said. "I miss her."

It was the most hopeful he had been for a while.

* * *

Saburo and Kululu said their good-byes, too.

"So you'll be back soon?" Saburo asked Kululu while Kululu was working.

"Ku. I should be," he said, then bragged, "After all, I'm the one we keeps this base running."

Saburo looked off to the side. "Be okay, all right? You don't have to go, you know."

"Ku. Is that _concern_ you're expressing for me?" he joked. Saburo grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. "And I do have to go. We should have gone a lot sooner for them."

"You know, I could tease you at how much feeling _you're_ expressing for missing her..." Saburo teased. "But I won't. As courtesy for the worst case-scenario that I might not see you again, you can stay in your denial."

Kululu glared for a moment. "I would do the same for you if you were out there. It's not anything special. I just need her to help with communications."

"Dude, there's a pile of broken cell phones that you dialed with her number _constantly_. You've been beyond worried for her. You probably would have called me a last cause, being a Pekoponian, but you're still holding out hope that she's fine," Saburo called out.

"Sh-she is," Kululu stuttered.

Saburo shrugged. "Yeah. That's why you'll find her. That's why you're going out." He smiled. "Just be safe, okay?" Saburo asked.

"Don't get sappy on me," Kululu groaned. But he was thankful for Saburo's words, anyway.

* * *

This was a mission. And the end of the mission wasn't absolute. As a mission, Giroro had to treat it with the possibility of its worse-case scenario. He knew deep down he might die on this mission.

He might never return. He knew Keronians and Pekoponian biology was different, but that still didn't mean they wouldn't die.

He had said his good-byes to Miss Furbottom, it was Natsumi's turn.

 _You've got to act like this is one of your last days alive, Giroro,_ Giroro told himself. After all, he didn't know if it was one of his last days.

He needed to tell Natsumi how he felt. If he didn't, his relationship with Natsumi would pretty much end, because even if he did return, it was likely that Natsumi would hook up with Saburo while he was gone.

He passed by Dororo's garden and picked some of his flowers again. He needed to be confident.

Natsumi would either reject or accept him, and out of respect most likely she'd wait at least a little bit to get together with Saburo.

He knocked on her door in the base.

"Yeah?" she asked, opening it up. She saw Giroro standing in front of her door with flowers.

"Umm here." Giroro handed her the flowers. She wanted to ask what they were for, but she knew he was leaving soon, so she let him into her room to talk to him.

"What... What do you need?" she asked. Maybe he just wanted to talk. To say good-bye. She could understand that. She would miss him, too. She really hoped things went smoothly.

"I wanted to tell you before I went out how I felt. In case I die out there," he started.

Natsumi was confused. "How you feel?"

"I..." Giroro blushed. This was the moment he had waited for for an incredibly long time. "Since our very first fight, the one where you punched me out a window, I've held strong feelings for you," he confessed. "I know you're in love with Saburo, but I would like you to at least consider the option of us... But if you don't feel the same way, I'll respect that." He nodded.

"What are you talking about?" Natsumi was very confused. She didn't even know what Giroro's strong feelings were.

"I... I am..." Giroro cleared his throat. "I'm in love with you, Natsumi."

Natsumi's mouth opened in utter shock. She hadn't seen that coming at all!

Giroro awaited her response. But she was just in utter shock. She hadn't experienced this level of shock since the bombs had fallen.

"Wh-what... What do you feel?" Giroro asked, licking his lips a bit in nervousness. His hands twitched.

Natsumi shook her head, trying to wake herself up. Did she feel the same? She was in love with Saburo to her knowledge, but Giroro... She was incredibly close to him. He understood her, she felt at peace with him. She felt whole with him. And she certainly shared a lot more interests with Giroro than she did with Saburo.

Unlike how Saburo was a passing crush, a hot guy, she could realistically see herself having deep conversation with Giroro, having fun every day with him. She could even see herself kissing him, now that she thought about it.

"I... I don't know," she admitted. "It's a big thing. Love, that is," she realized. "I can see us together. I really can. I know I like you. You're really cool. But I just don't know... if what I'm feeling is love yet," she confessed.

Giroro nodded. "I apologize for putting you on the spot. What you said was good enough, though. It's just that honestly I don't know if I'll survive going out there. I hope I will, but I wanted to prepare for the worst and tell you before it was too late," he told her.

"I have a few more days before you go though, right?" she asked. "I'll figure out how I feel before then."

Giroro smiled. "Thank you."

Natsumi nodded as he left her alone.

* * *

Koyuki was outside Natsumi's room. She had been prepared to confess to her. After she heard Giroro's confession, she felt it wouldn't be a good time, though.

She felt sad. She knew Giroro felt the same way about Natsumi, but Natsumi would probably choose Giroro over her as a romantic partner.

"You okay, Lady Koyuki?" Dororo asked, as Koyuki watched him water flowers.

"Giroro confessed to Natsumi. I... I decided not to tell her like I planned because I don't want to overwhelm her," she confided.

"That was very nice of you," Dororo complimented. Koyuki had great judgment. Koyuki was silent for a few minutes, a bit mopey.

"You'll be safe, right?" she asked, finally referring to his journey to the outside. She didn't want to lose him. He was her best friend, and her steady rock.

"I don't know, Lady Koyuki," he admitted. "But I can't just leave someone alone. Being forgotten about... hurts."

"I'm worried for you, though. What if something goes wrong?"

"Even if something goes wrong, I will always remain alive in your heart. There is no way to separate us truthfully. We're soul mates," he reminded her, grasping her hand and smiling. He took some string off the ground and tied it around Koyuki's pinky and his own. "This string, metaphorically and literally, ties us together. Even if we're far apart, we'll be together in our souls," he reassured her.

Koyuki smiled and hugged him. "Come back soon. Promise you'll come back to me soon."

"I'll always be with you. Do not worry." Dororo hugged back. He was glad he could share moments like this with her.

They hugged for a good long while.

* * *

There was one more day left until the frogs would leave. And Natsumi had thought long and hard about the Giroro issue. She had originally planned to confess to Saburo, but she felt like she no longer wanted to.

It had taken her a few restless nights, but the thought of Giroro dying out there worried her. He was a piece of her in a way. They were whole together.

She didn't want him gone. And she realized that was why he told her how he felt. He wanted to wrap things up between them before it was too late.

"Giroro." She didn't even knock on his door, she just threw it open.

"Natsumi?" He looked at her, wondering if she was ready to talk.

"I... I love you," she said. "I don't want you out of my life. I don't want you gone. But if there is a risk of you dying out there, I want to make things right between us before you leave."

"It's very unlikely that we'll die, from what I've heard from Kululu," Giroro explained to her. "I can just focus on the mission better if I treat it as such." He explained his weird logic.

Natsumi sighed, a bit relieved, but her hand still found its way to Giroro's. She smiled at him.

"I'm... glad you feel the same way. I can't tell you how relieved I am," Giroro said, grinning. "And happy."

Natsumi smiled. It was cute to see how happy Giroro was. She leaned down and kissed him on the lips.

Giroro melted. She could feel him tense up in embarrassment at the kiss. She giggled a bit. That was even cuter.

"If... If you really want to treat this like your last day to focus on the mission better, I wouldn't mind. What would you do with me now that I'm your... girlfriend I assume?" Natsumi asked.

Giroro beamed. "G-girlfriend? You're my girlfriend?"

She nodded. _His embarrassment really is the cutest!_ "What would you do with me?"

"Kiss you all day. Hold you," he confessed.

Natsumi frowned. That was less than she had expected, less naughty and less of a "last day alive" kind of thing. It was cute, though. She could admit that much.

"Anything else?~" She asked rather flirtatiously. She wanted to enjoy the time with Giroro she had. Also, her imprisonment in the base didn't offer many new things for her to do. Having sex with Giroro before he headed off on a mission would offer some much-needed fantasies to her and would be a very enjoyable memory. Even better, it meant that when he came back, more would probably be promised in the future.

"Hmm... I'd take you on a date!" Giroro smiled triumphantly. Natsumi sighed.

"I meant if you'd make love to me if it was your last day alive?" she asked, rubbing her forehead. He was not getting the clues.

She was horny and proud, goddamn it. And realizing how much she cared for Giroro made her very much want this to happen between them.

Giroro turned completely red. He started wobbling as if he was about to faint. "Ummm... well, I mean that's a good way to spend a last day, too... And I mean, that would be a perfect way to say good-bye for a bit. But, w-we just got together! Do you really want to start our relationship like that?"

Natsumi nodded eagerly. "We have plenty of time here, from what I've heard. When you come back, we'll continue having plenty of time. I want to value the urgency we have now, instead of being boring and patient."

Giroro blushed. "Well then... I see no harm in it." He carefully closed the door that Natsumi had swung open, blushing. He seemed to be trying to figure out what to do.

Natsumi rolled her shirt off of her, slowly. Giroro looked over at her, glancing sometimes at the wall when he felt embarrassed and had forgotten that he was supposed to be looking at her. Besides that, she had his complete attention, though.

"You're supposed to be looking at me and touching me, Giroro. You're treating this like your last day, remember?" she reminded him gently. She knew bra technology was probably too advanced for him, so she released her breasts on her own.

Giroro was entranced by the tiny bounce they made as she tossed her bra onto his floor. This was like so many of his fantasies and dreams.

"Come here," he begged. She did, and he placed his lips against hers passionately. Sucking on her lip, but being gentle not to bite it too much with his very pointy teeth, he eventually got a moan from her.

She placed her hands on his butt and tried to get him to grind a bit against her stomach as he passionately kissed her lips, his tongue eventually entering her mouth.

Their breathing became heated and he drew away from her, his eyes half-lidded. "I'm sorry, Natsumi, but grinding against your stomach is just too awkward."

"Sorry. I never put much thought into size differences before," she admitted. She had fantasies about this happening with someone around her size, but Giroro...

She had fantasized a lot, and although she had a very health sexual education and knowledge, she hadn't put much creativity into the size difference.

Giroro seemed a bit hurt by the comment that she hadn't thought about him before.

"I meant legitimately! I wasn't very creative about it in my fantasies!" she tried to reassure him. "You know, just your average boring penis-goes-in-vagina thing."

Giroro frowned and shook his head. "Everyone knows that sex is more than that." His hand drifted to Natsumi's breast as he began to fondle it. Their arguing wasn't particularly sexy, at least it probably wasn't to her.

But to him, arguing with Natsumi was always sexy. But that was a problem he'd probably have to work on. She was no longer his enemy, but his lover.

Natsumi moaned again, letting Giroro trail kisses along her shoulder blade and neck as he played with her breasts. They seemed to interest him quite a lot.

She held onto his butt, still wanting to make this enjoyable for him. "I... I guess I thought about you maybe a few times... You know, before this whole apocalypse thing happened. It wasn't very detailed or creative, just your average masturbation fantasy..." Natsumi admitted between moans.

"Oh?" Giroro felt incredibly aroused by that knowledge. Natsumi was so blunt, not an ounce of shyness in her, unlike him. "Wh-what was I doing?" he asked.

"Well, your face was between my legs..." she began. Giroro grinned, and started tugging her shorts and panties down.

"Got it. I will do as you wish," he grinned, and hungrily looked down at his sweet warrior princess.

Natsumi spread her legs wider apart after kicking off her clothing. She could feel herself warm and incredibly wet from anticipation.

Giroro slowly brought his face down, unsure really of what to do. Natsumi grinded her pelvis against him as if to signal him to hurry up.

Giroro rubbed her inner thighs and put his tongue against her opening, laying it flat. He licked upward, inciting a loud moan from Natsumi.

"Good..." she moaned, putting her hand on the back of Giroro's head. She placed her other hand down toward her clitoris and started rubbing it, to give Giroro a clue that she wanted him there, too. She wasn't going to waste time by asking, though.

Giroro kept licking, drinking her up and eating her out, looking up at her every so often to see how incredibly hot she was being. His hand eventually drifted up to her clitoris and swatted her hand out of the way to work away at rubbing it.

Natsumi continuously rocked herself against Giroro's mouth, sometimes grinding against him to get him closer and closer. She would tell him if he was doing well or where to give her more.

She moaned his name when she orgasmed, rocking against him desperately.

After licking her a few more times, he took her mouth off of her. He looked up at her sweetly, happy he could have such a moment with her.

"You're not getting off that easily," she smiled, rolling to her side to give him a full view of her body. "We're not done yet, Giroro."

"Do you want more?" Giroro asked. He would give her anything she asked for.

"Yep. You're not done making love to me yet." She helped him out of his belt, grinning as she saw his very hard erection. She made a point to ogle it in front of him for a few moments, which caused him to become very embarrassed.

"Is... Is it okay?" He was honestly worried it was too small.

"It looks fine. I like it." She ran her finger along the underside, and Giroro let out a low moan. "Lay down," she ordered, pushing him onto the ground.

"Huh?" He was on his back, faster then he could fight back, and Natsumi was standing over him. She probably intended to ride him.

He blushed. Sure, he had fantasies about Natsumi on top but as the macho guy he was, he had always assumed he'd be the one leading the situation. But no, reality was much different and Natsumi was way more experienced and mature about this, it seemed.

She took a hold of his penis at the base, and led him into her. "Don't move that much until I'm comfortable," she ordered sternly.

He nodded and then froze, trying not to move. He was completely embarrassed and it was very hard to focus on anything except the amazing feeling of being inside Natsumi.

Eventually, Natsumi started slowly moving, experimenting herself with tiny movements up and down.

"Sh-should I move yet?" Giroro asked. It was hard to just not let his eyes roll back and moan. Natsumi laughed a little bit.

"Yeah, you can move. But take it slow at first. I don't want you ramming into me, to start out. Mom said that's not very fun. You feel great, but I need to adjust." She let him slide part of the way out before going back down at a much quicker pace.

Giroro moaned at every small movement she made. He put his hand on one of her hips, clawing into it to get a good grip. Natsumi smiled and started at a little quicker pace, letting him try to match her.

Luckily, they both had a similar idea as to what speed and rhythm they wanted to go at, so their insides were incredibly compatible. They got a little bit competitive in speed, but Giroro tried to at least get somewhat of an upper hand by rubbing her clitoris again with his fingers, knowing she liked it there.

"Giroro... that feels so good.~ Don't stop. Keep going..." she would moan out. He tried to bring his torso a little bit upward in a sitting position so he could kiss her chest and underside of her breasts. She was a sweating mess, moaning and telling Giroro how good he was.

It didn't take long at all for Giroro to reach his climax. "I... I'm going to cum, Natsumi." He gripped onto her hips harder.

"Good," she smiled, satisfied and let him thrust into her a few more times, before finally squirting into her.

He moaned and wheezed as he finished up, slowly letting her detach herself. She laid down next to him and snuggled for a moment.

"Do you want more?" Giroro asked, kissing her softly on her lips. "I love you, you know."

"I know," Natsumi giggled. "And this is your pretend last night. I expect you to be making love to me for the rest of the night," she told him. "But I'll let you recover for a moment. After all, you're not as tough as me."

Giroro took offense at that. He bolted up. "I am too as strong as a Pekoponian!" He'd prove her wrong. Exactly like she had wanted.

He grinned as a spark of rivalry went between them.

* * *

It took them an incredibly long time for them to finally give in and give up from exhaustion. That was a lot of sex that they both had experienced.

Natsumi wrapped her arms around Giroro and kissed him on the cheek, snuggling with him under a blanket.

"So you'll be fine tomorrow?" she asked. "And you'll come back soon?"

"I will," he promised. "Just... promise something for me, too, all right?"

"Anything," Natsumi agreed.

"While I'm gone... I know you won't get together with him, but I'm still a little jealous. You won't hook up for Saburo, right? I mean if you want to be with Saburo I'm fine with that but I'd like you to end things with me first... Just wait for me all right?" Giroro begged. Natsumi held his hands and kissed his knuckles.

"I promise to wait. But don't worry, I won't get together with Saburo. I'll wait for you to come back and then this will become our everyday," she promised.

Giroro smiled. "Good. I love you so much, Natsumi," he told her.

"I love you, too," Natsumi told him. And they slept through the rest of the night together, for the first and probably last time.

* * *

Natsumi waved him good-bye the next day. They had said their more romantic good-byes on their own. They had decided that nobody else needed to know about their relationship until after Tamama and Angol Mois were back, safe and sound. It would have probably just distracted them on the mission.

"We'll be back soon," Keroro and the platoon promised, dressed in radiation suits. They saluted their human friends.

"You better be, stupid frog. Or I'll beat you up," Natsumi grinned. She had faith that they'd be back. They had all told her they'd be fine, after all. And even if their radiation suits did run out of air, their Keronian bodies would probably protect them.

Keroro laughed and smiled. And the frogs all exited the base.

None of the four humans ever saw them again. It took them a month to realize they weren't coming back.

Natsumi shed many tears.

* * *

 **Please review! Also, sorry, I'm not the best at smut. I just remember last time I wrote a Gironatsu story (A primary M rated one) a lot of people were asking for smut, so I included it this time.**


	7. Voting

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything. I was going to put chapter eight in here but I thought it might be too long. Chapter eight might be a little short though.**

 **Who knows. I haven't written it yet.**

 **Anyway, we're back to present time. The flashbacks have ended...For now.**

* * *

 **PRESENT DAY**

Natsumi took a deep breath as she walked into the main room to meet with Fuyuki, Koyuki, and Saburo and discuss what to do about the oncoming food shortage.

Dororo's garden had long since withered away, so it was no option for getting food. Natsumi drew in a sharp breath, trying not to think about the Keronians.

They were gone. There was nothing to change that. There was nothing that would bring Giroro back to her.

She couldn't focus on the past and her lost friends. She had to focus on the future and how to get her little group of friends to survive, unless they chose not to.

Natsumi sat down in a chair that was sort of at the head of the room. She usually lead the discussion as the leader of their group, so attention was usually directed at her.

"What are we going to do?" Saburo asked quietly, sitting down by Koyuki and Fuyuki's side. They all knew the situation they were facing.

Their food was running out. The base could no longer support four people.

"The choice is simple," Natsumi responded. "All of us die from lack of food or one of us goes... outside and looks for more food."

"But Natsumi," Koyuki spoke up, "sending someone outside is sending someone to their death."

They all remembered what had happened to the Keronians. They had gone outside... and they had never returned. They had died out there and it seemed one of them might share the same fate.

Natsumi bit her lip and began to chew on it, nervously. She knew that. She knew she was asking her friends to choose between dying or sentencing someone to death for another month of life. She knew Giroro had died out there.

 _Giroro..._ She missed him. She clenched her fist. She should have stopped him from going. Prevented him from going out on a hopeless mission. She shouldn't have believed a word of crap that Kululu had said that he would survive.

He was dead, and there was nothing that would change that. She knew that. And her promise to Giroro kept her lingering on his death, never actively moving on.

 _I should have stopped you. We could have been happy. You could have helped me with this decision,_ Natsumi thought.

But there was no Giroro. There was just her. And she knew she was a warrior, like he had told her. She had to be strong.

"I know." She answered Koyuki firmly. "I know it would be like a death sentence. But it's one of us or all of us. And with luck, maybe the atmosphere has cleared up and the person sent out there can find some food. Or it'll buy time to figure out Kululu's replenishing system," Natsumi pointed out.

The computer system was too advanced for all of them, but she knew Kululu would have had a way to restock supplies artificially. Saburo hadn't had the motivation to work on it and the rest of them were way too dim-witted, but she hoped sending one of them out would be a wake up call.

"So... you're leaning towards the send-one-of-us-out choice, huh?" Saburo realized.

"We can't give up. Not after all that's happened. We represent humanity. We may be the last humans. We need humanity to thrive. And that means not dying," Natsumi told them. "We need time, and although that means doing something horrible, we have to take the chance. It doesn't mean one of us dying, it means three of us possibly living," she spoke firmly. She knew everybody was leaning toward dying. Their motivation had waned for life. But she had to spark in them.

Fuyuki's eyes glistened for a moment as he listened. Out of everyone he was the most hopeless, depressed. He was like a walking sack of potatoes, a broken doll.

"It's all pointless, Natsumi. We should just give up," Fuyuki told her. His words were hopeless as always, but Natsumi knew her words had struck a chord. His hands were shaking.

Although Fuyuki didn't have motivation, he was still scared. He was no longer curious about the unknown. The occult no longer fueled his mind, he was terrified of things he didn't know. And death was one of those things. He desperately didn't want to end up like Keroro.

Natsumi smiled very softly at Fuyuki. She'd do anything to protect her brother. She was glad he was scared, because that would mean it was likely he'd go for her choice.

"I... I don't like this. I don't want to go outside," Koyuki murmured. The girl's eyes no longer sparkled with freedom. The outdoors that she once loved so much and thirsted for so much that Dororo had to prevent her from leaving no longer roamed her mind. Her ninja skills had grown much worse due to lack of practice. And this scared Koyuki much more than death ever could. She was no longer her, and she knew she would not be able to survive.

"I'm not asking you to go outside. We'll decide the person to leave by voting. Majority wins," Natsumi told them.

They all were silent for a moment as they thought long and hard about this.

"Please... for humanity. Let's live. We still have some fight left in us. After all, we defended Pekopon for so long against aliens. Let's defend our lives now." Natsumi smiled softly, reminding them of better times.

Finally, Saburo nodded. "I didn't want to die, anyway," he agreed.

"I... I don't really want to starve either," Koyuki admitted. Fuyuki's legs and hands were shaking. He just gave a timid nod.

Natsumi smiled. She handed out small pieces of paper and pencils. She set out a hat.

"Write down the name of who you think should go, then. We'll do it anonymously," she told them. "Don't... Don't feel guilty. Like we're sending someone out. Remember, we'll always be friends."

"Should we take a vow that we'll accept the decision of whoever gets the most votes?" Saburo asked, nervously licking his lips. He looked suspiciously at all of them. "I mean... I don't want it to get all Lord-of-the-Flies in here. I want to survive, not start a fight."

"Let's take a vow, then," Koyuki agreed. "If I'm voted, I'll leave for my death with grace." She turned to Natsumi, waiting for her to agree with the vow.

Natsumi smiled at Koyuki. "I'll do as you all command if I'm voted," she promised. She was confident she wouldn't be the one voted, though. They needed her, and she was by far the most popular there. She needed to stay and be the leader and protect her friends.

"I'll go... if I'm voted," Saburo said.

"Yes." Fuyuki just nodded.

They all hurriedly wrote down the name they chose.

Natsumi looked down at her paper. It was a hard decision and it filled her with guilt to write it down, but she did so anyway.

 _Saburo,_ she wrote. She didn't want Saburo to die, but she knew he was the friend she was least connected to and that she needed to stay there.

She also knew that he tempted her to break her vow, her promise to Giroro. Although it was a selfish reason, she needed any reason she could grasp to send someone away.

Everybody else tossed their papers into the hat. Natsumi mixed them up and read them aloud.

"Saburo." She read hers. Saburo nodded. He could take that one of his friends voted him. After all, he had voted one of them.

"Natsumi," she read. Her brow furrowed, worried. Why had someone written her name? She glanced over at the three of her friends. She suspected Saburo the most. Which was pretty fair, since she had written his name. She smiled and read the next one.

"Natsumi?" she read aloud. It was a second for her. Didn't her friends need and love her? And if her name was in twice, that meant that either Koyuki or Fuyuki had voted for her. And they were very close to her.

She read the last one, which would either decide if it would be a tie or if Natsumi would win. "N-Natsumi..." she whispered. She looked at her friends, confused.

"We all voted for Natsumi, didn't we?" Saburo asked carefully.

"I didn't do it because I hate you, Sis." Fuyuki was the one to speak up. To look directly into her eyes. "It's not even because I want you to be the one dead out of us the most. Actually, it's the opposite. If there's only one of us I could choose to live, it would be you."

Natsumi was confused. "Then why?" she asked.

"You're the strongest," he said simply. "You... You might survive out there. I... I know it's wrong to hope again that the atmosphere has gotten better, especially with what happened last time someone went out, but... I love you and I believe in you. You're strong and smart and you might survive. And you were never meant to live underground in safety, mothering the rest of us," he explained. "I... I believed for a long time that we should all just die. To kill ourselves. But you were the one who always inspired hope in me. You need to see what's out there. You're our hope. And that's why I chose you."

Natsumi no longer felt hurt. Instead, she felt confident and happy as the expectations of her friends were put on her.

"You're the only one strong enough to do it. I'm confident you can survive, or at least your spirit can, if it's really that bad out there," Koyuki told her. "I have confidence in you. You can survive." Koyuki had been thinking a similar way as Fuyuki.

Saburo shrugged. He honestly hadn't been thinking on their wave-length. He had just voted someone.

Natsumi smiled, a tear sliding down her cheek. She felt confident, even against a force of nature. She felt like she had to help her friends, prove them right.

She hugged Koyuki and Fuyuki. "I'll make you proud," she promised. It was the first time she had honest hope, not a more fake kindness for her friends. They had given her the confidence to face whatever was out there head on.

And if she died, at least she would know what Giroro had experienced.

They all didn't tell her to stay safe. They knew there was an underlying worry that she would die. But they wanted to hope for the best.

"I'll bring back food, I promise," Natsumi told them. They nodded.

* * *

"Stay safe," Natsumi told all of them, kissing Fuyuki and Koyuki on the cheeks. Koyuki smiled at the soft feeling. A while ago she would have been overjoyed, but she had long accepted that hers and Natsumi's relationship was that of only friendship. It wasn't bad to her; she loved Natsumi as a friend, and that was a prize all its own.

Miss Furbottom, Giroro's cat, rubbed herself against Natsumi's leg as a good-bye. Luckily, cat food was still plentiful, so she would most likely survive. Natsumi smiled. The cat didn't like her very much, but those small moments mattered to her.

"Take care of Fuyuki and Koyuki," she ordered Saburo. She knew Saburo would be the strongest mentally when she left. Saburo nodded.

"I'll try to look at Kululu's system. Don't worry, the time you bought us won't be in vain." Saburo didn't believe she'd survive. He knew it would be the last time he saw her, and that it was a noble sacrifice.

Natsumi nodded. "G-good... Good-bye." She said her farewells before stepping through the refrigerator.

She was out of the base and in Keroro's room. At that point, the air was still okay, easily breathable. Natsumi smiled and stomped on the ground to tell them it was okay.

The room was damaged - scratches were everywhere, furniture was broken, and it looked old - but it was survivable.

Natsumi climbed up the ladder out of the room and into her old house. The ladder was rusted, but at least it was still there.

There was a lot of wreckage and rubble of her old house that she had to move around, but eventually, she got out the exit.

As she stepped out to the outside, she covered her eyes. For the first time in a year she saw sun. The sunlight shined on her body and Natsumi drew her breath.

She could breath. She was free!

Looking at her skin, though, she still didn't know the long term effects. She could still be radiated over a period of time, presumably. It wasn't a good idea to get the others just because she hadn't combusted immediately.

She smiled despite herself. _I'm outside._ The sunlight made her grin. Even if she died right then and there, at least she'd die free and happy.

The breeze felt so good against her skin.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	8. Discovery

**It wasn't nearly as short as I predicted. Good.**

 **Mostly just Natsumi wandering around this chapter. I hope I kept it okay even though it features really only one character.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

The first thing Natsumi noticed was how barren the land seemed outside of her house. It was like an old western, just dirty sand.

Not a single plant was noticeable, although there was a lot of wreckage from the bombing. It was clear nobody had been present wandering around outside for a very long time.

In fact, Natsumi's house seemed the least wrecked when she looked over her shoulder to look at it. It had collapsed a little bit, like a slumped over sad looking house, but it wasn't completely flat and broken.

Not only that, but after breathing in quite a bit of what Natsumi hoped was fresh air, she noticed the smell of the outdoors.

Death still lingered. Skeletons littered the streets, and rotting corpses were still everywhere.

Natsumi covered her mouth. Yes, it was definitely the best idea to deal with this herself instead of gathering her friends.

Holding her arms to bundle up, she began walking through the streets looking for a source of food. That was her mission, after all. Perhaps a grocery store was still intact with non-perishables.

The breeze she once loved had grown quite cold as she felt alone and nauseous.

Everywhere she looked, there were more dead bodies. Her fears about her friends and her being the last humans seemed legitimate.

Nobody else had survived.

* * *

She walked miles, dragging her feet behind her, the confidence buzz wearing off as only the mission raged in her head.

 _Bring back food for my friends before I expire,_ she reminded herself. She had lived for a rather long time, but she didn't know when the radiation would get to her, if or more like when her body would expire.

It frightened her. Would it be instant? Painless? Or would it be slow and torturous?

She had thought a lot about death in the past year. It was very likely her mother and grandmother were dead, and most of her friends too, but the aspect of her dying still scared her.

She didn't want it to happen. Although she knew she'd probably have longer than any of them had, thanks to the bombing.

After her body died from radiation, would there be peace? Would she reunite with Giroro in death? Was there anything there for her?

She didn't know. Thinking about these things caused her body to shake, for fear to set in now that she was all alone.

She slumped down against a slab of concrete that had most likely fallen off a building. She hated seeing the corpses and bones littering the street but she wanted to rest, to figure out what to do now.

 _I'm alive._ Natsumi flexed her fingers and looked down at her hands. She wasn't smart enough to be aware of any of the effects of radiation, so she didn't know what to be on the look out for, but being able to move was enough for her.

She needed to figure out what to do now, where to look for food. A grocery store would be ideal, but very unrealistic, considering everything was wrecked.

Out of the corner of Natsumi's eye, she saw something move. She snapped her head toward the movement, happy to see anything that might be alive.

A giant rat scurried across the street and leaned down to start chewing on some tough, radiated, rotten meat.

Natsumi covered her mouth. So rats had somehow survived, but humans hadn't? And not only that but they were ginormous and disgusting.

She wanted to vomit as she saw the rat nibble on the tough, leather-like meat. It didn't seem to pay attention to her. Maybe it wasn't used to moving around humans and didn't care enough to expand its curiosity.

Natsumi stood up, pressing herself against the concrete. How many of those things were there? Probably a lot, she realized. She didn't know the effects of eating toxic rat, so killing a couple and dropping them by the base probably wasn't a healthy and safe food source.

She didn't want to put her friends through that. Even thinking about eating those made her nauseous.

 _Still, it would be best to come up with some sort of make-shift weapon,_ she decided, just in case they attacked. They didn't look friendly.

Her hands made the position of a gun. That was what she wanted. She smiled a little thinking of Giroro.

He would like that.

And perhaps maybe one of his guns was out there.

* * *

Natsumi trekked deeper into her old city, looking for food and weapons. Eventually, she came upon a wide street filled with the remains of broken tanks.

People's bodies stacked up, charred to a crisp. Some aged uniforms were still present on their bodies, and Natsumi recognized them.

 _The military. They must have been trying to evacuate civilians or attack or something,_ Natsumi deduced. It was so sad to see so many people like this.

They all seemed to be pointed in the same direction, though. Some of them had even died standing up, melted to the asphalt of the ground. Natsumi could clearly see what direction they were looking in.

 _They're looking at the sky above my house..._ she realized. She remembered that a bomb had dropped on her house, but something had hit it out of the way or it had been a dud and exploded in the air. It had never hit the ground, from what Kululu had told her.

 _I wonder what happened._ She thought briefly before noticing something on the ground. An intact gun! _Yippee!_ She got distracted and grabbed it.

She checked the number of bullets. Six. Enough to protect herself in emergencies. And there was sure to be more in this pack of soldiers.

Natsumi had mixed feelings about looting the dead, but she knew it was necessary. It might protect her from the rats and whatever other mutated monsters were out there. She had seen a bit of movement of kind of meshed-up monstrosities. One of the corpses had even moved a tiny bit, to her horror, but not much.

It was like out of a bad zombie movie, except it wasn't after her brains.

Still, all the mutations and monsters she had seen had one important thing in common. None of them made vocal sounds. They made sound from movement, but nothing else.

They didn't seem really alive.

Natsumi looked in the opposite direction of where the soldiers were looking. She needed to head farther away. She had found one thing... Maybe her luck was looking up.

She deserved luck, after all the things she had been through.

So she tried to keep optimistic as she walked.

* * *

The sky got slightly darker as time continued passing. There were no signs of food.

As Natsumi scanned her new environment, she did spot something. From her knowledge of her town and geography, she was getting closer and closer to Alien Street. And as she got closer, she spotted a slab of concrete that looked like it had once been part of a wall. It still stood up strong, but the rest of it was gone of whatever shop it had been a part of.

What was the most spectacular about this rubble, though was that it had her name on it in large letters. NATSUMI. It read as if someone had carved it in.

Natsumi instantly ran up to it, beckoned by the words. It could have been some other Natsumi written about, but she needed to know what the smaller words under it were.

As suspected, it was a message, or more like a letter.

 _Natsumi,_ it read.

 _Most likely I have died._ Natsumi tried to keep her eyes away from the message. She didn't want her fears to be confirmed that this was one of the Keronians who had written to her. She wanted this to be a message by someone to some other Natsumi, not her.

But she continued reading nonetheless.

 _This message might never be seen by you, because you shouldn't leave the base, but I need to write you this message._

 _At this present moment I do not believe we are going to survive. Our time limit is running out for our suits, and I suspect the radiation will effect us._

 _So I wanted to write you a farewell message even if it will take a few of my precious last minutes. Keroro, Kululu and Dororo are searching the area and I am pretending to, while I write this, so please let me just get this off my chest even if you'll never see it._

 _I love you, Natsumi. I always will. I'll love you forever and ever and I'm so glad to have met you, to come to Pekopon and met a warrior like you._

 _But what I did, telling you that I loved you and getting together right before a suicide mission was wrong. I will hurt you by dying and I don't want that._

 _Not only that, but I was selfish. I made you promise to wait for me, to not get together with Saburo out of my jealousy. But as I near closer and closer to death, I realize that was wrong._

 _You should be with Saburo. Please get over me, move on from the pain I will no doubt cause you. Don't be loyal, I know you're a pure valiant spirit who is honorable. You'd never break your promise, but break it. Move on. Be happy._

 _Saburo can give you happiness, please feel free to be with him. I know it's what you would want._

 _And I'm sorry._

 _\- Giroro._

Natsumi didn't know what to say or do after reading the letter. She knew Giroro had died, but at the same time, she didn't want it ever confirmed. She didn't want to hear these things.

And getting closure like this from a letter still felt wrong. She wanted to cling onto her little hope, not face the facts that her boyfriend was dead and that this was his final message.

She dropped to her knees and cried, pounding on the concrete wall with her fists and sobbing her head off.

All the tears she had kept in for her friends' sake were leaving her. She could no longer hold them back at all.

She just loudly wailed her head off, eventually grabbing a few pebbles and just throwing them in all sorts of directions. It made her feel better to exert her energy. To let herself feel angry.

One of the pebbles hit something. A cracking noise filled Natsumi's ears as glass broke. Turning her head, she noticed a little ways away an entrance to a somewhat intact grocery store that was no longer blocked. The glass doors that had been melted shut were now broken.

She hadn't noticed it because her attention had been on the letter. Weakly, she got up and walked forward like an emotionless zombie, holding another rock in her hand.

She reached into the door to punch a bigger hole. There already seemed to be a small hole in the corner of the door, probably made by a giant dog-sized rat.

Eventually, she cleared the entryway and went into the store. The ceiling was low, only barely letting her stand up straight. Dust and broken things were all over the place.

A few counters and shelves still seemed to be there, but Natsumi couldn't see what was on them because it was so dark. The only light source was from the light of outside.

She threw her rock, hoping she'd knock something down so she could see it. She hit a high shelf and noticed what fell while it was falling as it glistened in the sunlight.

Bottled water. And it didn't look like it was bad. It was just water, pure and clear. It fell to the ground, rolling a bit away from Natsumi.

Suddenly, something shot out from under some rubble. It was a yellow creature, a bit smaller than the giant rats. A thin tail trailed after the creature with some sort of orb on the end, following the creature like a ball and chain, imprisoning it.

Natsumi couldn't see much of the creature because of the dark, but the orb thing looked like a giant eyelid. The creature scurried across the ground and toward the water bottles, grabbing them, and then sneaked back into the darkness so Natsumi couldn't see it.

"Hey!" she yelled before covering her mouth. She didn't want this creature attacking her. But she recalled that the mutated creatures she had seen weren't that intelligent and probably wouldn't attack.

Unlike the other creatures, a sound answered her, echoing throughout the room.

It was an unmistakable sound. A sound that had echoed through Natsumi's mind a lot throughout the past years.

"Ku, ku, ku, ku, ku, ku..." Sinister laughter filled the store as Natsumi's hand shot up to her ears, instinctively covering them.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark a bit and she squinted, seeing the creature hiding under a board and noticing that it was the one laughing.

The laughter was unmistakable, and who the creature was was unmistakable too.

Natsumi felt her legs getting weak as her mind grew hazy. She felt like fainting. But instead she screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The thing in front of her, the mutated creature, it was Kululu.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	9. How it Happened

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

 **Another flashbacks, this time from the Keronian's perspective of what happened after they left.**

* * *

 **Nine Months Ago**

The Keronians all stood in radiation suits outside the Hinata House. They didn't have time to get nauseous from the scenery. They didn't have much time at all.

"We have six hours before the oxygen in these suits wears out. The radiation will crack them afterward," Kululu told the group. At the time, the air was still thick with smoke and radiation. It was clear it wasn't a safe environment.

Keroro bit his lip. "We better find Tamama quickly, then." They could only see his face from inside his helmet. The way things were outside made him worried. Had Tamama survived this long?

 _Please be okay,_ he hoped. _I should have never left you out for so long._

"Do we know where we're going?" Dororo asked.

"Alien Street. That's where I sent them," Keroro responded quickly. Hopefully they were still there. His nerves were jittery to reunite with the people he had sent out.

He hoped they weren't dead.

* * *

They looked around the area desperately for Tamama. Four of their hours had already been used up searching.

Giroro wrote his note to Natsumi as they continued their search. Keroro acted like a mad man, calling out Tamama's name to try and find him.

They hadn't seen any signs of anyone being alive yet. They saw a few rats, sure. A little larger-than-normal rats, but nothing else.

"I think I hear something," Giroro suddenly told them.

"All right." Dororo used his superior tracking skills though to help them find their friend. He pointed deeper into the passage of Alien Street.

They followed him.

* * *

There were just as many corpses in Alien Street as there had been in the Pekoponian districts of the city. None of the aliens had survived.

Keroro grew more and more worried for Tamama's safety. "That... That was a Viper's skeleton we passed, wasn't it?" he asked.

Giroro nodded. He didn't want to think the worst, but it was likely Tamama was already dead. He didn't know if they could survive the radiation, but he knew nobody could survive bombings.

Eventually the four came upon a small, run-down shack. It looked tilted and ashed-soaked, but much sturdier than the other buildings. Probably designed to withstand intense earthquakes probably.

"Ku. Come over here!" Kululu directed. The small shack didn't seem to be very impressive on the outside, but it looked strong. And it looked like it would have withstood the bombing. "The architecture looks like it was designed to withstand intense earthquakes. I remember reading about a design plan to refurbish Alien Street to have more buildings like these so that it wouldn't be ruined every time Mois hit the planet and felt like trying to destroy this place," he said. Then he chuckled at the memory. "Ku, ku, ku."

"Your point?" Giroro asked.

"This is probably a tester building for that. If somebody stayed in here, there would be a chance for survival," Kululu continued. The door looked busted, like some bricks might have collapsed on it, but it was mostly intact.

"But that's just hope that they hid out here," said Giroro.

"No. It isn't. Mois was with Tamama," Kululu said. "She knew these buildings because I read the article with her. She would have been smart enough to seek shelter. He might have been here."

Keroro grinned hopefully as Kululu talked. "Let's open the door, then! Maybe he's in there, waiting for us!"

Giroro nodded and started shooting at the door. Eventually the rubble was cleared and the entrance was open.

The four peered into the dark room. Kululu turned his flashlight glasses on.

The inside looked a little bigger than the outside, and pretty intact.

"AAAAAHHHH THE LIGHT... IT BURNNNSSS..." Tamama's voice screamed as Kululu's flashlight eyes scanned the area. "Turn it off..."

"Tamama!?" Keroro was overjoyed and instantly jumped into the deeper parts of the building. His arms outstretched to a hug.

Kululu dimmed down his glasses so everybody could comfortably see. They could see now that the floor was littered with clothing of various alien species, and scraps of skeletons. Tamama might not have been the only one hiding out there.

But what was the most shocking was Tamama, who was now curled up in a ball in the corner adjusting to the light. He didn't look like Tamama as much. His body seemed a tiny bit larger, his arms and legs slimier and longer, more elastic. These features could be passed off as malnutrition, but what was more horrifying was the rest of his body.

His eyes were even larger, but his pupils were smaller and more slanted, as if compressed. It didn't look like he could see well.

His hands were the worst, though. His fingers were long and bony and the skeleton was exposed, like the skin had melted away from acid.

The most noticeable feature was Tamama's long tongue, coiled around his entire body for warmth and to protect himself from the light.

"Wh-what happened to you, Private?" Keroro asked. He put a hand on Tamama's head, his arm shaking a bit from fear. "It doesn't matter... I'm just so glad you're alive!"

Tamama looked up and stood. "M-mr... Sergeant?" he asked, putting his hands up to his face in shock. He got close, because he couldn't see very well. His tongue flicked onto Keroro's hand, as if to taste him to see where he was.

"Yeah, it's me. And I brought Dororo, Giroro, and Kululu too," Keroro smiled. He tried not to let Tamama's tongue feel how much he was shaking.

"What happened?" Giroro asked again. It appeared almost like Tamama was mutated. Tamama was silent for a moment, not caring much for Giroro and keeping his attention focused on Keroro.

"You happened, Mr. Sergeant. You didn't come for me." His voice was mad, accusing. Keroro stepped back a little bit.

"I... I know... I wanted to, but..." Keroro paused. "F-fuyuki needed me."

"I don't care. I thought about you every moment. Every single moment. As the radiation seeped through my body and everything else became numb, I thought of you. And what did you do? YOU ABANDONED ME! I've been waiting days for you to come for me. And you never did," Tamama hissed. He looked like he wanted to bite into Keroro. To punish him.

"I... I am so so sorry," Keroro apologized. He honestly was.

"I should hate you. But don't worry, I still love you," Tamama assured him. "But you need to be punished. As I ate the others who were here, I thought of you. But I won't eat you. I thought about how I would make you mine. I've waited so long." Tamama's tongue darted forward, wrapping itself around Keroro's helmet.

"Wh-what...?" Keroro gasped for breath as the tongue constricted around him, crushing the helmet and exposing Keroro to the radiated air.

Tamama let go as Keroro dropped to the ground, gasping.

Dororo, Giroro, and Kululu watched in horror as Tamama's tongue licked Keroro's face, leaving a trail of saliva. Keroro gasped.

"K-Keroro..." Giroro looked like he was about to run up to his friend's side and punch Tamama, but Keroro put his hand up.

"D-don't... You heard him." Keroro told Giroro. "I-I need to be punished. He waited so long." Keroro's eyes were swirling, as if he was thinking straight.

"You'll mutate just like me," Tamama told him. "And then the only thought in your head will be me. I'll make it so."

Giroro put his hand on his gun. "Tamama's a lost case. I need to save Keroro," he grunted. He didn't like what was happening. "It looks like the radiation didn't kill him, but he mutated... How long can Keroro survive this environment?" he wondered.

"It's... It's already happening, his mutations..." Kululu glanced at Keroro. "It's too late."

Keroro's eyes weren't clear. They were glassy. He was going blind. He just gasped on the ground, struggling out of his suit so it wouldn't weigh him down.

Giroro drew his weapon and shot at Tamama, despite Tamama being his platoon member. Dororo threw a ninja star at the bullets, deflecting them.

"We came here to save him! Not to kill him! Keroro wouldn't want us hurting him!" he reminded him. Giroro nodded.

Kululu's mind was on a different subject, instead of Tamama's tongue entwined around Keroro's body.

"Where's Mois?" he asked quietly.

Tamama grinned as he headed toward a hole in the ceiling that he had made, probably to sneak out while he was waiting for them. "I ate her, of course. After my mutation, everything's tasted so much better, and she was the first meal I had. At least that woman was good for something in the end."

There was silence in the air as the implication that Tamama had killed one of their friends settled into their minds.

It was Kululu who reacted first. "I'm going to kill you." Unlike Giroro and Dororo though, he didn't have any weapons on him and was at a disadvantage.

He tried to launch himself forward to tackle Tamama, to strangle him or anything else he could do, but Giroro grabbed Kululu before he could.

Tamama just laughed as Kululu tried to struggle free, anger and terrible threats filling his voice instead of the tears he was fighting back.

"H-he's getting up!" Dororo tried to focus Giroro and Kululu's attention to Keroro, as Keroro started to move. Tamama helped him straighten out.

"You taste so good, Mr. Sergeant!" Tamama's voice got all lovey-dovey. "Should we ditch these losers, my love? You haven't fully mutated yet, I think."

Keroro didn't look around. He couldn't see. "I don't even know who these people are," he answered. "But whatever you want, Private!" Keroro's voice was also weirdly lovey-dovey.

Giroro weakened, but kept his grip on Kululu firm to save Kululu's life. He knew they didn't know what they were facing with Tamama, and Tamama's tongue seemed way too strong. If Kululu attacked Kululu would be killed, but his blood still ran cold with what Keroro said.

"What do you mean you don't know who we are?" Giroro asked. "Keroro! It's me! Giroro!"

Keroro didn't even seem to hear him. He just draped his arms around Tamama and Tamama used his tongue as a rope to drag them up to the ceiling.

"KERORO! COME BACK!" Giroro screamed. Kululu got out of his grip and tried to jump up to Tamama to murder him. Keroro kicked him the face, causing him to be sent flying.

In mere minutes, they were gone.

* * *

Giroro and Dororo sat blankly outside, horrified at the loss of Keroro and the mutation of Tamama.

"Th-they're gone..." Dororo whispered. "Do we go after them?"

"We should. How long do we have, Kululu, before our suits where out?" Giroro asked. Kululu weakly and limply looked at a timer.

"Five minutes," he responded. "Even if we went at our top speed, we wouldn't make it back to the Hinata House in time to release our suits. We should be thinking less of Keroro and more of us," he told them. "Ku, ku, ku. Tamama's proved something to us, though. We won't die. We'll mutate if the air touches us. And our minds will be altered... We might forget everything about us, or just some. Anything could happen to our minds."

Giroro's arms started shaking in rage. Dororo started crying.

"What do you suggest to do, Kululu?" Giroro asked. "Do we try to make it back to the house? Can you extend our time?"

Kululu shook his head. He didn't even care at the moment. "We have a tough choice to make now. Kill ourselves before becoming monsters or mutate into one of them. We might not even be ourselves after it." He paused. "Ku, ku, ku. So what do you guys choose?"

They were all silent. "We should die. We all know that was a risk when we took the mission. We're all willing for it to happen. I think we should separate, and each spend our last minutes as ourselves... And commit suicide in the end," Giroro suggested.

"Separate? Why's that?" Dororo asked.

"If someone does choose to mutate, we don't want him attacking the rest. Also, we don't want anybody killing each other, forcing his choice on the other two," Giroro explained.

Kululu nodded. "Suicide it is?"

"Suicide," he agreed.

Dororo gave a small nod. "Good-bye, my friends," he politely told them.

Giroro smiled sadly. "Good-bye, may I see you again in another life."

Kululu didn't even say good-bye.

And they all turned around and headed for different directions.

* * *

Giroro sat in front of the letter to Natsumi he had written. He knew he should kill himself, but his love for Natsumi prevented him.

He didn't want to leave her. He knew that suicide had been his suggestion and that he was the one who had pushed for it, but he didn't want to leave her.

Even though it would mean turning into a monster. He loaded his gun, ready to shoot himself in the head.

 _I can't. I can't put herself through that pain. At least with me alive, there will be hope. Even if I am a monster, I can hope that I retain my memories for her._ In a moment's decision, Giroro shot at the ground instead, letting his potentially alive comrades hear the shot of his gun, but not shooting himself.

He took his helmet off.

It was a stupid choice, one he made in a moment's notice, and a dishonest one to his friends. But he did it anyway.

And he waited for the radiation to sink into his body.

* * *

Dororo, too, didn't commit suicide. He betrayed the pact. It wasn't because he wanted to be a monster, it was just that he couldn't betray the planet he loved and leave it.

 _I need to help you, Pekopon,_ he realized as he tossed his blade to the ground. He had to wait and become one with the planet.

A tear slid down his cheek as he heard gunfire echo the air. Giroro had died. But he wouldn't. He'd live on for the both of them.

* * *

 _Tamama was a monster. But he was a strong monster,_ Kululu realized. Rage still filled his mind at what Tamama had done.

He wasn't just letting that go. And he knew from what he had seen from Keroro and Tamama, if he focused on his rage, he might remember it.

He never had any intention of dying. He was going to become a mutant.

And he was going to take Tamama down.

 _I'll kill him for you, Mois. I won't let that monster get away with eating you._ He wasn't ready to experience any grief yet. He just felt anger.

* * *

None of the three died. And they all mutated in their own way. They went their separate ways, never really rejoining and being on their own, but they all fought on their own.

Unknown to them, they had each mutated into something that embodied one of each of the five senses.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	10. Limited Knowledge

**Well, this chapter was actually the short one. I am sorry.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Mostly just Natsumi stuff.**

* * *

Natsumi jumped back at the thing that was now noticeably Kululu to her. She saw his tiny little hat and his headphones and the only difference seemed to be the tail-like chain trailing after him.

Kululu perked up and turned to her, turning his head at the loud noise she had made.

He stayed on the floor and stared at her like a cat, waiting for any sudden movements she made.

"K-Kululu... is that you?" she asked finally, trying to keep her voice from shaking. The new appendage he had had shocked her, but she could feel the fear finally leaving her body.

Kululu... was alive, despite what she had believed! Did that mean Giroro could be alive, too?

Kululu rubbed his face. "How do you know my name?" he asked suspiciously.

Natsumi did a double-take. How did she know his name? She had known him a very long time! Did he seriously not recognize her? "It's me, Natsumi! Of course I know your name," she told him.

Kululu was silent for a bit. "So I knew you at a time." He observed her.

"Of course you did! You lived in my basement," she responded. Kululu didn't look like he believed her.

 _What's going on? Why doesn't he know me?_ Natsumi wondered.

"Did someone tell you to tell me this?" Kululu asked suspiciously. He honestly didn't know who Natsumi was.

Natsumi shook her head. Kululu waited for an answer. She continued fervently shaking her head.

"Well?" he asked.

"No! I shook my head like fifteen times!" she pointed out. "You were looking right at me. You acknowledge that as a response, right?"

Kululu's hands went up to his glasses for a moment, briefly touching them. "Ku, ku, ku."

He seemed disoriented. Suspicious of her, but mostly like he didn't know her. "Kululu? Do you really not know who I am?" Natsumi asked hesitantly, fearing the worst.

Had something happened to him, giving him amnesia? Had he only forgot her, or had he forgotten everyone else, too? At least he knew his own name.

"I do not know who you are," he confirmed. "Ku, and I don't really care who you are. But I suppose it's interesting that you know me. If I cared enough about your well-being, I'd question you about me, too. But I really don't."

 _Well, he's still a jerk._ Natsumi frowned. "How'd... How'd this happen to you? You look so different. You don't remember anything, do you?"

Kululu sighed. "I'll tell you, but only if you do something for me. Ku, ku, ku. I ain't giving information for free, after all."

"What do you want?" Natsumi asked.

"Are there any water bottles in this store on the higher shelves?"

Natsumi looked around, "Yes."

"Reach it for me."

"Why?" she asked.

"Keronians need fresh water a lot. And in this apocalyptic world, there's not much of it. So we've been fighting over it," he told her.

Natsumi perked up. _We?_ So there were at least a couple other Keronians alive. She smiled, but shyly hid it.

"Don't think anything stupid. I'm not smiling because I'm happy those stupid frogs are alive," she denied, embarrassed.

"You were smiling?" Kululu asked. He hadn't seen. Natsumi frowned. His glasses seemed to be perfectly intact.

She handed him the water bottles. "Tell me why you don't know who I am."

"Amnesia. Duh." Kululu stated the obvious. "Side effect of mutating."

"Mutating?"

Kululu drank a bit from the bottled water. Then he got up and started circling Natsumi.

"From what I know and briefly remember, the radiation was pretty thick at the point in time I was out here. It didn't kill us, but we did mutate into monstrosities. Nice, huh? Ku, ku, ku."

She didn't know why he was circling her. And circling badly, too. She tried to step to the left, but his circling got better every time she moved.

He continued talking. "From what I know, only one similar desire was left in our keronian minds. Find water and invade. We were invaders of this pitiful planet, correct?" Kululu asked.

Natsumi nodded, but he didn't notice. Instead, he jumped toward her leg, trying to bite into it to attack.

Natsumi easily kicked him off. Kululu was a weakling.

"Ooof!" Kululu was tossed in a pile of packaged toilet paper. He tried to get up, but was a bit bruised. "Ku, I was going to kill you before you reported to Keroro, Natsumi-whoever-you-are, but I seem to have underestimated your strength."

Natsumi smiled a little bit. Keroro? So he was alive! Maybe he was the other Keronian Kululu was talking about. "I can't believe you tried to attack me." She pouted. "And I'm not working for the stupid frog! I live in the base you made safe for us, remember? I'm on a mission to find food for my friends... Friends like Saburo. You remember Saburo, right?" He was his best friend, after all.

"Doesn't ring any bells," Kululu wincing. "Ku. I thought I'd be stronger as a mutant. Boy, was I wrong." He spoke mostly to himself.

Natsumi bent down to his level. She felt pity for him. He looked so pitiful. She offered him a hand, but he didn't seem to see it.

"Why did you think you'd be stronger?" she asked.

"Ku, the other Keronians... At least the ones I've encountered on a more frequent level... have gotten more powerful. They seem to embody some sort of sense out of the five stupid senses. Ku. But me? Nah. I've got nothing."

"A... A sense? What do you mean? Who have you encountered? I mean, besides the stupid frog... well, Keroro," she asked. Kululu didn't know her nickname for him.

"Like the sense of touch. He can feel vibrations in the ground and a lot of things. Makes him tough in a fight. I can't win any water over him," Kululu murmured, speaking a little too much due to his pain from the kick. His glasses spirals narrowed suspiciously at her asking about the other Keronians. "Why do you want to know about the other Keronians?"

"Because they're my friends," she answered quickly. "Have... Have you encountered Giroro?"

Kululu grinned. _So that's her ally. The one she wants to know about._ Truth be told, he had encountered his entire old platoon, but Natsumi did not have to know that. "I've encountered Tamama," he pretended to admit. "The guy's unfortunately strong with his stupid tongue."

"What about Giroro? What happened to Giroro?" Natsumi asked again urgently.

"He died," Kululu said simply. He heard Natsumi stifled sobs. "Before our radiation suits ran out, he decided to commit suicide before becoming a monster. He killed himself." It was a half-lie. It had been Giroro's plan, but Kululu had eventually seen him again and remembered briefly about his old platoon member. He remembered a little bit, like Giroro holding him back as he tried to kill Tamama.

Natsumi started crying, unable to hold in the tears. Just when she got hope, it had been crushed.

 _So he was her ally._ Kululu grinned.

"Now, I've answered a question for you. Answer one for me," Kululu ordered. He was at a disadvantage against Natsumi. He hadn't gained anything mutating except a tail that he didn't like lifting that had a weighted thing at the end of it and a heck of a lot of things he couldn't do, like feel things properly, taste, or even see. In fact, he was deaf on top of all that. The only reason he could hear Natsumi and was relying on his hearing was because he had managed to adapt his headphones to picking up sound much better. It was the only thing he could rely on now.

"A-all right..." Natsumi answered.

"Who was I close to back before I mutated?" It was a simple question - he was just trying to learn more about his past.

Natsumi's expression softened a little through her tears. She wiped her cheeks. It was such a simple, honest question that she couldn't deny it to him.

"Saburo," she told him. "He was your best friend."

"Hmm..." Kululu didn't remember the name at all. "What eye color does he have?" He asked a more specific question. Although he couldn't see any more, he could remember colors. It wasn't like everything was black. It was more like everything was extremely blurry, about as blurry as it was when he didn't have his glasses on.

"Blue." Natsumi tried to smile at the attractiveness of his blue eyes, but all she could think about was Giroro's death and how he had killed himself.

"Oh." Kululu was silent for a moment, the slight hint of disappointment going through his voice. Natsumi was too sad to pick it up.

Natsumi sniffled and it gave Kululu time to think.

 _She's alone now that I cut off her ally Giroro. And from what I heard from her, she's been kicked out of her safe house on this mission thing. She's all alone,_ Kululu realized. This suited his purposes just fine. _If I spend a bit of time with her, it might benefit me. I'll have someone strong with me and I might be able to reclaim some of my lost self._ He grinned wickedly. Although weak, he was still smart and he was sure he could easily figure out a way to find the food she desired for her friends.

He sat in front of her, thinking and waiting for her to stop sobbing over Giroro, thinking of how disappointed he was that he was so weak.

* * *

His transformation had taken a long time. It didn't take long for his hearing to stop, but growing a tail was quite painful and took a bit of time.

He had hidden out in a cave while he had mutated.

 _I'll be as strong as Tamama when this happens,_ he remembered thinking. He needed to be stronger. He was already physically weak.

But he had to complete his goal, to kill Tamama. No matter what hell he went through, he would kill him.

Giroro wouldn't hold him back this time. He'd be so strong that he wouldn't be able to be held back.

Kululu moaned in pain as he covered his ears. They were rupturing, and sounds were cutting out. He was losing his hearing, and it hurt.

His fingertips became numb as he could no longer feel things properly. Soon enough, his other senses had begun fizzling out, as well.

 _No... No! I'm not losing my hearing! I need to hear Tamama's screams... To hear him beg forgiveness and mercy as I grant him none for what he did to... to her... Who?_ Kululu's mind was drawing a blank. _Uh... her. That's what matters._ He had forgotten Mois's name. He had to focus before he forgot anything else.

He quickly started working on his headphones. They already were connected to his ears and brain, so it would be easy enough to adapt them.

He might lose a sense to nature, but he'd manually make it better than it had been before. He was a genius.

He wouldn't let himself lose his hearing.

Quickly, he worked, thinking happily about Tamama's screams.

* * *

Natsumi's tears eventually waned and she turned to Kululu and looked at him. He made no expression as she stared at him... She started to suspect he couldn't see her.

"What now?" she finally asked. Was he going to stay with her now that she had found him again, or were they going to separate?

Should she get his help, or was she in this alone?

She waited for Kululu's response of the next step.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	11. Water Tower

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **This was originally two chapters, but I combined the chapters because the first chapter was too short.**

* * *

Natsumi remained staring at Kululu, waiting for him to answer her question.

"What now?" she asked again. She let her words hang in the air, echoing through their ears. What would happen to them? Would they forge an alliance, or would Kululu leave, not finding her interesting because he didn't remember who she was?

Kululu shrugged and stood up. He brushed some dust off himself. "I'm not interested in forming a permanent alliance with you. Friendship isn't something that interests me," he told her.

Natsumi looked disappointed, "Oh," she murmured. "So will you just leave? I mean, I doubt you'll attack me again. It didn't work in your favor last time."

"I didn't finish." He shushed her. "I'm not interested in a permanent alliance, but I am interested in a temporary one. My intelligence I assume could be very useful to you. I could make some devices to supply food to your friends so they don't starve. Ku."

Natsumi's eyes glowed. "What's the catch? For an alliance to work, you'd want something from me. Is it protection, since I'm strong? Or is it reaching high water bottles for you?" Her height was certainly an advantage.

She wondered what it was that Kululu desired.

"I want water," he said. "I will make the inventions you desire, but in return you have to help me gain territory. In the middle of this city, there's a large water tower," he explained. "I want it. We Keronians have been fighting over owning it, but none of us has gained it for very long," he confessed. "I want you to help me get it."

Natsumi paused at the object he desired. It made sense. "Is it good water? Doesn't it have a bunch of radiation or something?"

"Ku. No, after a year, the water's mostly purified itself from rain and wells," he said. "So... do we have a deal? Will you fight for me?"

Natsumi thought for a moment. Out of all the Keronians, Kululu was by far her least favorite, but he was the only one she had encountered. He didn't know her, though, and his primary personality was jerk. Would he double-cross her?

"Deal," she finally agreed. It wasn't like she had any better options for food. And it was a temporary alliance. He would give her food in exchange for her helping him get the water. They would both help each others' survival.

She shook his hand, feeling a sense of dread overcome her. _If... If I get the food and go underground again, will it really be right, leaving Kululu to invade the planet? It might be mostly dead, but I don't want him to rule my planet. I don't want it._

She knew it was wrong, but sometimes she had to make tough choices for survival.

Kululu grinned. "Ku, ku, ku. Don't double cross me now, ya hear?"

"Okay," Natsumi agreed.

"Or else I'll make you suffer. Ku, ku, ku." He laughed sinisterly. He still had the sinister terrible personality that he had always been.

And Natsumi grew uneasy at her new alliance.

* * *

They left the grocery store to search for the water tower. Natsumi knew somewhat where it was located, much farther away. Perhaps a day's journey or so at top speed, maybe two days at Kululu's speed. Kululu was much slower than her, after all, and tripped over all sorts of stuff.

"Why don't you lift your tail instead of using it as a weight?" Natsumi asked. Looking at it closer, it definitely looked like it had a large eyeball at the end, covered in a firm layer of skin and closed like an eyelid.

Kululu lifted his tail for a moment. "I like it better as a weight. I only use it for balance anyway," he confessed.

Natsumi was confused. Did he not know that there was probably an eye he could open on the end of it? Or was the eyelid sealed shut?

She wondered if she should tell him about the eye, but decided against it. She didn't need Kululu more powerful than necessary.

"Lead the way to the water tower," Kululu ordered. "And I will make an invention that supplies food to your friends for life."

"Don't you know where it is?" Natsumi asked, flabbergasted.

"It's hard to find the way on my own," he told her. "I... I can't see very well. Just another of my disgustingly pathetic weaknesses. Ku," he hissed.

 _Ah. That's why he can't see my movements._ Natsumi made a mental note of that, just in case she got in trouble with Kululu.

"I'll lead the way with my voice, then," she volunteered.

"More like led the way with your loud footsteps. Ku, ku, ku," Kululu teased. Natsumi frowned, but lead the way anyway.

* * *

They were halfway there when they decided to rest and make camp. It looked like it was about five AM in the morning and Natsumi was tired. It had been a long day and it was dark and she was hungry. She plopped down and her stomach growled.

"You hungry?" Kululu asked.

"Yeah. I haven't eaten for the last two days," she Natsumi confessed. "What do you usually eat out here?"

Kululu paused for a moment and waited for something. A giant rat scurried out to chew on some charred corpse. Taking out a tazer, he approached the large sound and tazed it until he was dead.

He then chomped into it, without cooking it.

Natsumi covered her mouth, grossed out. "EWWWW!" She turned around to vomit. "Y-you don't expect me to eat _that_ do you? Th-that's a giant mutated rat that was eating corpses!" She already felt nauseous again, even though she had emptied her stomach.

"Doesn't matter. I can't taste, feel, or smell it anyway," Kululu confessed, "and it gives enough sustenance. I've been eating these for months and they've been supplying me plenty of energy."

"I... I don't want to eat it," she gagged.

"I wasn't offering," Kululu told her.

Natsumi frowned. _Rude_. "I'll look around for my own food, then." Maybe she could find a can of beans or something.

She walked away from Kululu to go look. "I'm so hungry," she moaned. Her legs were getting weaker and weaker. Eventually, she collapsed on the ground, tiredly bringing herself up again.

In front of her, in a small tower, was exactly what she had wished for, like an illusion. Three containers of natto. Non-perishable and good.

She grabbed one and hungrily broke it open, pouring it down her throat.

 _Wait a minute... Where did this come from?_ she finally wondered, wiping away some bean dribble from her mouth. "Is this real?" It tasted real. But where had it come from? It was as if it was waiting for her.

She took the cans in her arms and looked around for whoever had given it to her. She saw a large hole to her left, tunneled deep in the ground, but she just suspected another giant rat.

Maybe it had been a coincidence?

 _Or... Or Kululu could be wrong!_ Natsumi was way too hopeful. _What if Giroro's alive and well, and he made these beans for me?_ she hoped.

She looked around for a letter, any sign someone had left them for her. She finally found a small note written in the dirt.

It was cryptic and told her nothing, though. _Get away from him. Stay away from him - he's dangerous._ She knew the him the note was referring too.

Kululu.

"I know. But I need to do this. For my friends," she told the note. Then she whispered, "Thank you, Giroro."

She left, ready to sleep and camp in some sort of make-shift shelter. Even if Kululu was dangerous.

* * *

It hadn't been Giroro to leave the note.

 _She's still with him,_ Dororo realized, safely hiding out in the ground. _Did she ignore my warnings?_ Natsumi shouldn't have been out of the base. Why was she there?

All he knew was he had to save her. He had to protect her from what was out there.

As the only one of the Keroro Platoon with all his memories, he had to be the one to protect their friends.

* * *

It took them a long while, but they finally made it to the water tower. Natsumi looked up in awe at the still intact source of water. It could help a lot of people, but Kululu wanted it for himself.

"I'll make you the food inventions, and you can bring it to your loser friends. But first I need to build a force field to protect my new territory. Then it'll be mine," Kululu told her.

"Couldn't you do this yourself?" Natsumi asked curiously.

"No. I need you to direct me to where parts are and how close I am to putting them together. It takes way too long on my own, now that I can no longer see or feel anything," he confessed.

 _Wow. He's incredibly weak,_ Natsumi realized. "I don't know how to make inventions, though."

"Just direct me to where parts are and how close I am to putting things together," he sighed. "I know you're not good at making things. It's because you're an idiot."

Natsumi frowned, offended. But she looked around and tried to describe their surroundings to help Kululu.

* * *

They didn't work together very well; in fact, it took a long time to put together just half of the device.

"Hey, Kululu..." Natsumi realized. "Didn't you say the frogs were fighting for this territory and wanted the water tower, too?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are they then?" Natsumi asked. "Are... Are they here?"

Kululu grinned wickedly. "This territory is currently held by Keroro and Tamama. They should be here soon, along with the second part of your task."

"The second part?" Natsumi asked fearfully.

Suddenly, she saw two figures approach, standing on the top of the water tower. "So you've returned, Kululu! And you've brought someone!" She heard Keroro's wicked laughter and looked up to the tower.

She saw Tamama's arm draped around Keroro, a long tongue coming out of his mouth, much longer than his own body. His hands were bony and skeletal. He was taller than normal and looked like his limbs were more slinky, almost elastic.

She drew her breath, knowing that the frogs had mutated, but didn't know it had been this bad. Keroro also looked like a monster, two long insect-like antennae growing out of his head. His eyes were pale and glassy, and his hands looked like they had small little hairs growing out of them.

"S-stupid... Stupid frog..." Natsumi stuttered. Keroro laughed as Tamama shot his tongue out to a pole and the two of them lowered themselves to the ground.

"Ready to get your butt kicked again, Kululu? You might not be able to escape with your life this time," Keroro laughed.

"Your second task is to kill them. But... leave Tamama somewhat alive. I have plans for him. Ku, ku, ku," Kululu told Natsumi.

"You aren't going to hurt him!" Keroro yelled. "That's the one thing I can't forgive you for, Kululu, your hatred for my lover!"

"Hehehe... Mr. Sergeant said I was his lover. His mind is all mine." Tamama kissed Keroro's cheek. "Mr. Sergeant? Kill him for me," he ordered.

"Anything for you," Keroro smiled, unable to think much for himself.

Natsumi frowned. "Stupid frog!" she yelled. She had no intention of killing him as she ran up to the two of them. She was horrified by their appearance, but she was happy enough to see that Keroro and Tamama were alive.

Keroro paid her no notice. He put his hand on the ground to feel the vibrations of her movement and as she approached, he waited. When she was within touching distance, he easily placed a hand on one of her pressure points and pushed down.

Natsumi crumpled to the ground in intense pain. She had forgotten that, from what Kululu had implied, the Keronians were all stronger from mutation, all except him.

"AAAH!" she screamed. "Why? Don't you remember me?" she asked, curling up.

Keroro put his foot on her, ready to crush her into the ground. He was a lot heavier and stronger, it seemed. He just frowned.

"I only remember Tamama. I only care about Tamama. I live for him. Not some stupid pekoponian," he told her.

Tamama giggled. "Exactly, my love. Now, do you want me to do the honors?" Tamama looked down at Natsumi, licking his lips and ready to feast.

Natsumi shivered at the way Keroro and Tamama's minds had detracted. Only remembering each other seemed like a cute idea in theory, but they were monsters. Keroro seemed to follow Tamama's every order and Tamama kept a firm control on him, enjoying more painful things in life.

Power seemed to corrupt. She was so glad Kululu was weak and wasn't as terrifying as them.

"I'll do it. After all, you requested I kill everyone from my past. That way you'll be the only one, past, present and future for me!" Keroro hummed. "And it seems like this pathetic Pekoponian knows me. Pity I have to kill her, she would have made a nice slave when invade the planet."

Keroro was about to stomp on her, but Natsumi rolled over, avoiding the blow. The ground shook a little from the vibration of his movement, like he had his own rhythm of all the vibrations that he was a master of and controlled.

Natsumi quickly got up, ready to fight. She barreled at him head-first. He was hit away from Tamama's side.

"Snap out of it, stupid frog! You're not like this! You aren't a murderer! You're a funny, stupid little frog. And... And my friend!" she confessed, holding onto his elbows. "Please... remember who you are!" She wanted to cry.

Keroro felt Natsumi's touch and focused on it. He brought his leg up and kneed her in the stomach, causing her to fall backward toward Tamama. Tamama's tongue twirled around Natsumi's waist and he opened his jaw.

"You taste delicious. Fresh meat is always the best!~" he hummed. "I wonder how your fear... your feelings, your screams, will taste!"

Natsumi tried to struggle. She shivered as Tamama's tongue constricted around her. They were tougher than she expected. "Kululu! Help me!" she begged.

Kululu had finished his little tiny box, about the size of his hand. He tossed it at Natsumi and it stuck to her shirt.

There was a beeping sound.

"A force field?" she wondered.

"Bomb," Kululu corrected. "Tamama will have trouble unentwining himself from you now. Ku, ku, ku. Thanks for helping me, Natsumi. You served as the perfect bait."

Natsumi's eyes widened in fear at the double-cross. Tamama tried to desperately get himself away from Natsumi, but his belly rumbled and she continued being drawn closer to his mouth.

"Tamama!" Keroro screamed, running over to him. He wasn't tall enough to get the bomb on Natsumi's shirt though.

"Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed as they all screamed. Keroro ran over to him and punched him in the face, causing him to fly a few feet away. His body crumpled into the ground, but he continued to laugh.

"I will kill you," Keroro told him.

Kululu just slinked away, feeling very accomplished at striking a blow at Tamama. He was wounded, but he got away, anyway, in Keroro's panic, since he knew Keroro couldn't see him.

The timer beeped down and Natsumi closed her eyes, waiting for her to death to come. Suddenly, Tamama's tongue left her body, along with the front of her shirt, which had the bomb attached.

 _PHWOH_! It exploded a distance away as it was thrown to the side.

Tamama sobbed as Keroro cradled him.

"Your tongue... Let's retreat for now," he told him. "It'll grow back. I'm sure of it."

Natsumi looked down to see Tamama's tongue on the ground, severed from the rest of his body. It was bleeding.

A hand squeezed hers. "I'm here, Natsumi. I won't let them harm you." She looked up to see her friend, Koyuki, a ninja blade colored with blood in her hand.

"Koyuki!?" She hugged her friend as if she was an illusion. Keroro and Tamama ran away.

Koyuki looked to the side, waiting for Keroro and Tamama to be away. She looked more calm and at peace, now that she was outside again. Natsumi hugged her friend, mostly to contain her decency since half of her shirt was now off and also to hug her, happy to see her.

"I faced my fears, Natsumi. I'm still the same ninja I was long ago," Koyuki told her. "You're safe now."

Natsumi cried. "Why are you out here? It might be dangerous. I don't know if the radiation will get to us! I mean... I'm happy to see you, but why are you here?" She felt so frightened at her near death.

"I came here to save you," Koyuki said. "I was called to help you. And when I saw you were in trouble, I attacked."

"How did you know where I was?" Natsumi asked.

"I followed the string," Koyuki confessed.

"The string?" Natsumi was confused.

* * *

It had been hours after Natsumi had left. Everybody was pretty down at sending Natsumi out there alone.

But they had forgotten to do one thing. Natsumi hadn't locked the door.

Wandering around the hallways, Koyuki found a string. It was a red string, and it lead to the outside. Someone had sneaked in and put it there.

She wondered if she should tell anyone, but she remembered one important thing.

 _Dororo... He said that we were connected by a string like that one,_ she realized. Could Dororo be calling her? Did he want her to join him in death?

She was scared, but at the same time, she knew she had to face her fears. She needed to follow the string.

If the outside had death, she would follow it. If she was no longer the person she once was, the strong ninja, she would deal with it.

But the string commanded her to leave. And she had to follow her fate.

Not telling anyone, she left, picking up the string and following it.

* * *

"It lead me to you," Koyuki explained. "Maybe it wanted to tell me that you were in trouble."

Natsumi hugged her. "You survived out here! I... I survived out here." She smiled. "And you saved me!"

"I still have it." Koyuki grinned, twirling her blade. "I was a bit rusty, but I was fast enough."

Natsumi smiled. "We faced our problems... And I think that's something we need to do. Living underground in safety is wrong, we should face our problems. We're not mutating, the air... It seems safe," she spoke. "I should have never trusted Kululu. I should have trusted my real friends all along and asked for their help. We should all work together. No more abandoning one person to do the work of many."

Koyuki smiled and nodded. "You trusted Kululu? I mean, I saw a bit of him and Tamama and Keroro... But they're alive?"

"They're no longer the frogs, though. They're monsters. We shouldn't trust them," Natsumi advised.

Koyuki nodded, trusting her friend more than anything.

* * *

 **Please review! Well, that alliance lasted like half a chapter. Truly a temporary alliance.**


	12. Seeing is Believing

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Here's another chapter.**

* * *

Kululu licked his bruises carefully, trying to heal them or stop various bleeding. He was filled with rage when he had heard in the distance the sound of Tamama fleeing.

He had failed. Tamama wasn't dead.

 _And two of my rivals for the water tower aren't gone._ Not only that, but his body was weak from being beaten up.

He was used to being beaten by his former comrades, but the aspect that he failed still hurt.

If he had any of the powers that the others had gained, maybe he would have been able to take Tamama down on his own.

But he hadn't gained anything. The only reason he wasn't completely deaf was because of his headphones, and he now had to rely on his hearing completely.

 _My goal of killing Tamama failed... Again. Like it always does._ He had tried to dupe Natsumi, but his plan had failed. And no doubt she'd be on the look-out for him to have her revenge now.

Overall, it had been a very bad day.

He heard someone approach as he bandaged his wounds before he started bleeding all over the ground. He couldn't move, his body was too weak from blood loss.

"Pitiful," he heard a deep voice sneer. Kululu frowned.

 _Giroro,_ he thought to himself. He didn't focus on destroying Giroro as much as he did Tamama, but his former comrade was still his enemy, focused on invading the planet and taking all the water for himself. The two barely ever got along.

He could hear Giroro's gun click. Did he plan to shoot and kill him now that he couldn't get up?

"I can't kill you," Giroro decided. "You're so weak and pathetic. Not even a threat." He laughed. He constantly belittled Kululu, talking down to him.

He had been one of the Keronians who had gained a heightened sense.

"You wouldn't be able to shoot me, anyway. You can't aim worth crap," Kululu spat. "Ku, ku, ku."

"Don't make me change my mind," Giroro hissed. "And I can aim. It just... takes a bit of work... and echolocation."

 _Ku. Stupid extra powers and echolocation,_ Kululu thought. Giroro had lost things just like Kululu had, mainly his sight from what Kululu knew, but he had gained things, too. A heightened sense of hearing, for one. Giroro's hearing was superb. H could probably hear this entire city if he focused well enough on it.

Kululu had tried to get his headphones to give him the level of Giroro's hearing, but he still couldn't compete with Giroro's mutations.

"If you killed me now, there would be one less person to compete with you over the invasion," Kululu reminded him.

"Hm." Giroro thought for a moment. "You weren't much competition, anyway. You've just been kind of that pathetic weakling who tries a little too hard."

Kululu made an annoyed grunt. "So your goal is to still invade this entire planet? Enslave any Pekoponians you might meet?" He had thought that Giroro hadn't met any Pekoponians in person since his mutation, but the way Natsumi spoke about him made him suspect they were allies.

"Of course. That should be any good invader's goal. I'll invade this planet, even if it's mostly dead," said Giroro. "Is that not your goal, too?"

"Of course it's my goal," Kululu agreed. "Ku, but I also think about more important things, like destroying Tamama."

"Still going for that, huh?" Giroro chuckled a bit. "It won't do any good. You probably failed again at your latest attempt, huh?"

Kululu frowned. "Doesn't matter. I'll try again when I'm stronger," he insisted. "Thought I could use a Pekoponian as bait. It almost worked, but apparently her friend came in and saved her."

Giroro perked up. "P-Pekoponian?" He hadn't seen a single Pekoponian out since he had mutated. And he didn't remember anything, except his platoon and the invasion. "I thought the only ones that had survived were the ones in that giant fortress," he murmured.

"You were wrong, it seems. There's another collection of them," Kululu informed.

Giroro rubbed his chin. He needed to fight them. To assert his dominance over them. "I'll listen for them. I'll track them down," he vowed.

"Ku. I bet it feels great being able to actually have special mutation powers," Kululu uttered jealously.

Giroro grinned. "You bet. Being the sense of hearing... Well, it benefits me greatly." He asked him, "Jealous?"

"I might not have gained a super sense like you, Dororo, Keroro, and Tamama, but I'm still a genius," said Kululu. "Too bad you didn't get a _heightened sense of intellect_."

"A super genius that can't make anything because he can't see anything," Giroro snickered. "You're useless. I'm surprised you've survived this long, honestly."

Kululu growled, but he heard a minor cracking noise as he tried to get up. His glasses had broken in the fight - the glass was probably stabbing him, and he couldn't feel it.

"Darn it, now my glasses broke, too," he spoke to himself. He didn't have any spares. Not like they helped him, anyway. He was as blind without them as he was with them on. He tossed them off of him, clearing the glass from his face.

"You don't have a spare do you? Wow. Things are really looking up for you," Giroro mocked. "Your precious glasses broke - " He wasn't answered by Kululu's anger, because Kululu was completely silent. "Kululu? You're still alive. I can hear your heartbeat."

Kululu just stood in awe as he stared at his hand. "I... I can see," he realized.

"WHAT." Giroro jumped back a little. The reason he liked to tease and mock Kululu so much and keep him alive was that it made him feel better, like it was revenge or something. He figured that, in their past, Kululu had mocked him. But now he was the stronger one.

However, if Kululu could see, his one disadvantage of not being able to make glorious super-weapons was pretty much gone. And since he had made a device to hear for himself, he would be able to see _and_ hear, which was more than a lot of the Keronians had.

None of the rest of them could see very well at all.

"I CAN SEE! It was the stupid glasses that was making everything blurry! I... I had just assumed for so long that I didn't gain a sense but... I can see everything! Across the city, colors that Keronians aren't even supposed to process... I can even blink and see your organs. I have all sorts of different eyelids... Ku, ku, ku, ku. This is glorious." Kululu began laughing up a storm as he looked at Giroro, just glaring at him.

Giroro took another step back. He hated that laugh. Now it was even louder ever since Giroro became the sense of hearing.

"Ku, ku, ku, ku... Man, you are ugly," Kululu mocked. He had nine months of teasing to make up for.

He could finally see how Giroro had been mutated, and _ugly_ was an understatement. He was as mutated of a monster as the rest of them.

His eyes were completely gone. They were just empty sockets, and they looked horrifying. There were slits on the back of his knees, to hear even more sounds, and his skin wasn't a deep red, it was much paler.

His skin didn't look smooth - it looked rough and course, and the only thing that looked even somewhat not vomit-inducing were his extra ears, long and brown brown like his hat, like fluffy rabbit ears.

"The adorableness of those ears are just the icing on the cake of disgust," Kululu mocked. Giroro pulled up his gun, ready to shoot now that Kululu was a threat.

Kululu just grinned. He easily knocked the gun out of Giroro's hand the moment he started bringing it up.

He could see. And he loved it.

"You going to fight me?" Kululu asked, "Let's see what's stronger, then... Hearing? Or sight? Oh wait, it'll be me, since I have both! Ku, ku, ku!" he laughed.

Giroro bit his lip. He tried to focus on the sound of Kululu's movement, but Kululu's loud confident laughter made his ears burn.

"I'll beat you," Giroro growled. "And then I'll beat out of you the location of the Pekoponian you encountered so I can beat them too and take this planet as my own."

"Ku, ku, ku. Good luck with that," Kululu mocked. Giroro moved forward toward Kululu, and Kululu happily dodged him, twirling his hand around his headphones for a setting that caused electrical shocks. He sent a wave of electricity at Giroro, but Giroro was able to pull through it, in pain but feeling very little of it.

They faced each other, ready to kill, but as both of their hands launched forward for the other's neck, Dororo popped up from the ground to stop them.

He put his claw-like hands between them to stop their fighting. "You can't go to the Pekoponians," he warned. "Stop this fighting and listen to me."

"Oh if it isn't Mr. Hippie," Kululu groaned. Dororo competed for the planet and for water by far the least, since he had found some sort of underground well, but he was still an annoyance that popped up now and then.

"Get out of the way, Dororo. I'll end you too if you continue blocking me," Giroro told him.

"I can't let you," Dororo told him. "I don't want either of you getting close to the Pekoponians."

"Why? There's no need to protect them, they're the enemy!" said Giroro.

"No. No they aren't." Dororo shook his head. "And although the atmosphere is safe now to them, we aren't. We're filled with radiation. If we keep too close to them, we might kill or mutate them too. So I request... No, I _order_ you to keep the Pekoponians out of your little war. Don't interact with them. Don't touch them. Leave them alone." There was a touch of sadness in his voice. He missed the Pekoponians too, but he knew he wasn't exempt from this rule.

"I don't care," said Kululu. Giroro pushed Dororo out of the way.

"Me neither," he agreed.

"If you get close to them... If you hurt them... I'll... I'll have to kill you myself. So please... Please don't interact with them," Dororo begged. He didn't want to kill his old friends.

Giroro and Kululu glanced at him. Dororo couldn't hear very well at all, and he couldn't see, but he had adapted the best to having a single sense. A ninja only needed one, after all, and being the sense of smell, he tried to focus on smelling people's certain scent and tracking them. Their aura. If he got close enough underground, he could use what limited hearing he did have to hear their discussions and gain information, the most powerful thing.

He had kept up with all the fighting on the surface as he lived underground, the safest place for someone who could neither hear well nor see.

"You're ugly, too," Kululu said finally, not really caring about the Pekoponians or Dororo. He had a major confidence boost and he wasn't about to let it end. He had never been able to see well, and now that he could, he felt like he could do anything.

Dororo was paler than he usually was. Pale like moonlight, and his eyes were constantly narrowed, being unable to take the intense light. His snout had pointed a little more, like a wolf's, drawing attention to his intense nose. He no longer had hands and instead had more claw-like blades as arms. His legs were just like sharp pointed blades that he walked on, and he constantly crouched on all fours.

Kululu turned his attention to Giroro. He was ready to attack again.

"You do care," Dororo quietly told them. "Those Pekoponians are your friends. You just don't remember."

"You don't either," Giroro pointed out. They all knew all their minds had mutated to the point of forgetting important details about their lives. They remembered the most after their mutations. Giroro and Kululu were a bit curious about their previous lives, saddened about forgetting, but Tamama and Keroro cared nothing for their memories. Only each other were in their heads.

Giroro was slightly jealous. At least they remembered each other. He only knew that he had an old platoon and who they were, but he didn't remember who was his friend and who was his foe. All of them were his foes now.

"I remember everything," Dororo admitted quietly. "I... I never lost any memories in the mutation. I know all about me, all about us, and all about our friends."

Giroro and Kululu snapped toward him, stopping their fighting at that confession. Now their interest was piqued.

"Tell me about me," they both said at the same time. They were both curious about who they were and what they were like.

Dororo frowned sadly. He let them come closer and closer to him as he backed away and they tried to double-team him, coming from either side.

"Ninja arte, explosion," he finally said, having planted a paper between them. The ground exploded, throwing them in opposite directions and forming a bigger rift between them so they wouldn't fight.

"No. I won't tell you. Not unless you promise to stay away from the Pekoponians," he said.

He then burrowed into the ground away from them, letting his promise linger in the air. He hoped they were curious enough about themselves.

He really hoped.

* * *

 **All right, I'm going to list who's each sense just for reference.**

 **Tamama- Taste**

 **Giroro-Hearing**

 **Keroro- Touch**

 **Dororo- Smell**

 **Kululu- Sight.**

 **Please review!**


	13. Reunion

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

 **Half way done with the story now! Yay!**

* * *

Koyuki held Natsumi's crying body in her arms, letting her friend rest her face on her shoulder, sobbing about how glad she was to see her.

"There, there, Natsumi." Koyuki pat her back.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again! I thought I'd be alone forever out here!" Natsumi told her. Koyuki held her close.

"I came for you. We're best friends, after all," she smiled at her, slowly pulling her away from her shoulder. Natsumi crying for a good long time wouldn't help anyone. She carefully wiped away Natsumi's tears with her hands and smiled at her.

"We're free out here, but more importantly, we're together," she said.

Natsumi stiffly nodded. "I... I was scared," she admitted. "When I saw the Keronians... and how different they were. I was scared that I had to deal with it alone."

Koyuki nodded. "I'm still scared," she confessed. But Natsumi's words stirred questions in her mind. She hadn't thought much about Keroro and Tamama's new forms. Her main focus was protecting Natsumi, but it occurred to her that the Keronians were clearly alive.

Different, perhaps even evil and ready to attack them, but alive. And that was all that mattered to her.

 _Dororo,_ she thought to herself. Dororo might be alive. "Have... Have you seen Dororo?"

Natsumi looked at her. It had never occurred to her to ask Kululu about Dororo. She had been focused on her boyfriend, not Koyuki's... Well, she didn't know what Dororo and Koyuki were. They were best friends, right? But then why did Koyuki say _Natsumi_ was her best friend?

"I..." Natsumi didn't know where Dororo was, but she suddenly became worried that Koyuki would go looking for him. If it was her and her friend was alive, she would search for him. But Koyuki had broken more over his death than she had with Giroro. She had bounced back for her brother, but Koyuki... Koyuki hadn't even been able to mention Dororo's name.

If she saw Dororo and he was alive, and he had mutated into some sort of monstrosity, she might not be able to take it.

If he had forgotten her like Keroro, Tamama, and Kululu had toward her, it would be the finishing blow. Koyuki would break as she realized the friendship she and Dororo had could no longer be reclaimed.

And if Dororo attacked her, she might not have the mentality to fight back.

"I don't know. I haven't." Natsumi told the truth. "He... He might be dead like Giroro is."

"Giroro's dead?" Koyuki asked, shocked. "Oh Natsumi... I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, he was a good friend," Natsumi lied. Koyuki didn't really need to know how deep her and Giroro's relationship had been.

"Well, I mean he wasn't just your friend, right, Natsumi? Didn't you love him?" Koyuki asked.

"Huh?" Natsumi asked.

"When... When they left... I heard you calling to him... Talking about how much you loved him and wanted him back while you slept. And, I mean, he confessed to you right before he left, right?" she said.

Natsumi nodded. "We... We were together... I didn't know you knew. Does anyone else?"

Koyuki shook her head, "I don't think they picked up on it. But I was observant," she told Natsumi proudly. "But... I'm so sorry, Natsumi."

Natsumi felt like crying again. She sniffled a bit. "I knew it deep down. I've had it confirmed several times now... I've found his last letter to me. Kululu told me he killed himself over mutating. And he never returned nine months ago. I knew all along." She sniffed. "I... I need to let go... But I keep having some sort of hope that it's a lie. That he's out there just like Tamama is. I mean, we thought he was dead, too," she said.

Koyuki pat her friend's head. "I'm... I'm so sorry..." She knew she'd have to face this pain herself soon, too. Just like Natsumi was.

The knowledge that at least some of the Keronians were alive was fueling her hope, though. Dororo's death hadn't been confirmed.

And because of that, she could only feel bad for Natsumi's plight, hoping for herself that she wouldn't go through the same.

* * *

Koyuki seemed to adapt to the survival situation of their new world pretty quickly, finding shelter for them for the night and being overall a little more joyful at the fresh air. Even if there were no plants and it was a barren rubble of a wasteland, she could still see the sunlight. And that was more than she got in the base.

Her mood had dampened from being imprisoned in there. She just wasn't meant to be confined. She was a free spirit, and her usual personality was slowly returning to her. A more light-hearted and optimistic one.

Ninja were used to being alone. Humanity's death wasn't as much of an issue to her.

She was a little worried at her out-of-practice skills, but hopefully they'd get better soon. "Hand me your shirt," she ordered Natsumi.

Natsumi hugged herself. "Why? It's cold."

"I can sew it up," Koyuki told her, taking a pin out of her pocket. "You don't want to walk around with a giant hole showing off your bra, right?"

Natsumi thought for a moment and quickly took off her shirt, handing it to Koyuki.

She sat as Koyuki worked. "Do you think it's safe enough to get Fuyuki and Saburo and let them outside, too?" she finally asked.

She was happy enough just being out there with Koyuki, but it seemed wrong to leave them on their own, wondering where Koyuki had gone.

Koyuki thought for a moment. "The air seems safe enough. I don't think we'll die of radiation like we first believed."

Natsumi nodded. But then she thought of Fuyuki. "We can't," she finally decided.

"Why?" Koyuki asked.

"Because the stupid frog is out here. And he's... He's a monster. He... He wanted to kill me. And if Fuyuki saw him in that state, that would be worse than believing he was dead," she explained. "Sometimes... it's better to not hope at all, so those hopes can't be dashed away." She knew as soon as Fuyuki knew Keroro was alive that he would be filled with hope. But the result of seeing his old friend would destroy him more than he already was destroyed. "He can't see him. He's too fragile," Natsumi told her. "Keroro would kill him in his weakness."

Koyuki nodded. "What about Saburo, then?"

"He could take it," Natsumi decided. "But then Fuyuki would be left all alone. I can't do that to him. So Saburo has to stay with Fuyuki."

Koyuki nodded. The decision to not seek out their friends was final.

* * *

Saburo and Fuyuki had other ideas however.

Koyuki had mysteriously disappeared. She was no longer present in the base. And Saburo didn't know what had happened.

"W-we...We need to talk..." Saburo tried to do Natsumi's job. To call a meeting. Fuyuki was the only one there. He had his never-ending blank expression. "We've looked everywhere and Koyuki... She's gone." This concerned Saburo greatly. In the year that had passed by, he and Koyuki had grown incredibly close, and he had a big soft spot for the girl. They both hadn't had much of a family to lose, so at first they had been the least sad about the situation. But after the Keronians had left, Koyuki hadn't been able to get out of bed or do much of anything. She had been much too broken.

Natsumi didn't remember this very much, because she too had been a sobbing mess, just like Fuyuki, but Saburo had been the strongest of the four. He had taken it upon himself to try and cheer the group up. Eventually Natsumi started trying incredibly hard to distract herself from the deaths of her friends and focusing all her energy on Fuyuki, so Saburo focused on Koyuki instead.

He would go visit her in her room in the base, feeding her food and talking to her, hoping to spark some conversation and motivate her out of bed. It had eventually worked, and they had grown much closer, becoming very good friends despite her broken state and lack of motivation.

"Did... Did something get her?" Fuyuki asked. He had heard something moving around the other day in the base, but he hadn't cared enough to check it out. Seeing the floor and wall, though, there were peculiar scratch marks, as if something was walking on a blade.

Saburo didn't know. "I... I don't know," he admitted. "I think the most likely thing is she got fed up. I don't think she could deal with sending Natsumi out."

"So... what do you think she did?" Fuyuki asked. "Went out with her?"

"That's exactly what I think happened," he told him. "She never liked being confined here. I think she probably went out, even if it was dangerous." He grinned a little to himself. "Takes major bravery. Maybe she was able to do it because she knew she wouldn't be alone, now that Natsumi was out there?"

Fuyuki frowned. "But... that means we've lost another friend." He slumped over in his chair weakly. "We'll be all alone, soon enough. You'll leave next, or die or something, and I'll be all alone." He clutched at Saburo's shirt sadly and weakly.

Saburo looked sadly at Fuyuki's sorry state. "I won't leave you," he promised.

"You might. You're the only one I have left," said Fuyuki. "You'll leave just like Momoka. You'll die."

Saburo frowned. Whenever Fuyuki expressed any sort of feelings for him, be it friendship, companionship, or more, he always brought up Momoka. It was very apparent that he only wanted Saburo around due to his loneliness and trying to fill the hole Momoka had left in his heart.

It didn't make Saburo feel the best about himself, honestly.

"Fuyuki... I won't leave you. That's why I'm bringing this conversation to you. Natsumi is gone. Koyuki is missing, probably lost out there, we're the only two left," he said. "Do you think it's worth it to gamble... to look for them? They're our friends and we should really put them as high as our own lives," he suggested. "I'm worried for them."

"Wait... Do you mean, you're asking me if we should go out there? We'll die!" said Fuyuki. "We sent Natsumi out there just so we wouldn't die."

"But Koyuki is gone now. She's missing. We need to look for her," Saburo said. "Maybe it's best to bite the bullet, finally face what's out there. If we die, we die. Nothing we can do about that. But if the environment is livable, we'll be free. Free from this endless boredom, free from this awful place... I personally think gambling is worth it. Especially when we have nothing else to lose now."

Fuyuki thought for a moment. His legs started shaking in fear of the outside. "Sarge went outside... And he died," he reminded him.

"Momoka's out there. Don't you want to finally find out what happened to her? To at least give her a proper funeral?" Saburo asked.

Fuyuki's shivering subsided a little bit at the reminder of Momoka. He finally gave a small nod. "You're right. There's nothing else to lose. And... it would be wrong to lose Natsumi and Koyuki. We're all friends. Either all of us dies, or two of us live now. And... I don't want only two of us to live," he decided. "Two is too small a number."

Saburo nodded and out-stretched his hand. "Let's go out then. Let's see if the end of the world all it's cracked up to be."

Fuyuki nodded.

And the two left the base that had previously been their home.

* * *

When they got outside and realized the air was breathable, they rejoiced and hugged in happiness. To their surprise, a green string was laying waiting for them.

"It was set out for us," Saburo realized.

"Should we follow it?" Fuyuki asked. The green color was similar to Koyuki's. Saburo nodded.

"Let's find Koyuki," he nodded.

And they followed the string.

* * *

Koyuki slept on Natsumi's shoulder, having finished her shirt. Natsumi kept watch.

"SIS!" Fuyuki screamed, running up to Natsumi and flinging Koyuki off of her. Koyuki made a pained moan at being knocked away.

"Fuyuki?" Natsumi asked, seeing Fuyuki and Saburo in front of her. "What are you doing here?"

Fuyuki hugged Natsumi and cried. "I'm so happy you aren't dead!"

Saburo smiled at her and nodded to Koyuki. "So you left to find Natsumi?" he asked her.

"Yeah. I followed the string in the base to her," Koyuki told him.

Saburo rubbed his chin. It sounded similar to the green string he had found.

"We decided to bite the bullet, Natsumi. Face what was out here head on. And... we're alive. So I guess we won," Saburo grinned.

Natsumi smiled widely at him, too. They all hugged each other, rejoicing and happy to be reunited.

* * *

 **Please review.**

 **Wow, a lot more Koyuki in this fic than any of my other fics.**


	14. Cut Off Ties

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Ahh...The chapters I start cramming kurumois in. You knew it would happen.**

* * *

For Kululu, the aspect of learning more about himself was definitely a tempting one. But was it tempting enough that he wouldn't bother Natsumi's group and the other Pekoponian that joined her?

Kululu didn't know. He had power now. And he wanted to exert that power.

And there was a chance Dororo didn't know who he was searching for. He just needed a name, to know who the person hazily in his dreams and memories were. He could barely make out her face when he closed his eyes, the only thing firmly in his memories were her obnoxious, sparkly golden eyes.

She was the sparkly eyed girl in his dreams. And he needed to know who she was.

He knew she was dead. Probably finding out more about her wouldn't help him, anyway, but he was still drawn to her.

 _I want to know what we were like... What it was like to live happily with her._ He wanted to know her name so he could properly avenge her.

It seemed her name was censored in his memories whenever Tamama told him. But it was still firmly in his mind that Tamama had killed her. _"I ate her,"_ he recalled Tamama saying.

And for that, Tamama needed to die.

He wanted to know more about her, what had made her happy, what they had done together, what it was like to be happy with her, but he wasn't sure who could give him those answers. After all, Natsumi didn't even know who he was talking about. She had only mentioned Saburo, who had blue eyes, not golden, so he wasn't who he was looking for.

All he knew about them was that they had been in love. He was clearly in love with her, even now. And he was happy enough to have at least carried over his feelings when he had mutated. It made him more him, but he wanted to know more.

 _Will Dororo know?_ he wondered. Was it worth it?

He played around on a tall broken building, surveying the city below him, finally able to see all over. He noticed four humans in the distance. One was probably Natsumi, and the others might have been her friends. They had multiplied.

 _I'm an invader. I shouldn't be thinking about this. The choice is obvious. I know Dororo knows about me now. I can get the information out of him some other way. I can take him down now that I can see,_ Kululu thought egotistically.

He wanted to take Natsumi's group down. To exert his dominance.

He looked around for parts, ready to attack them, to play around with his sight. "What's this?" he finally realized, looking at his tail. He knew there was a giant orb at the end of it, but he had never inspected it.

Flexing it, he opened the eyelid on it, having never focused on it much before. The eye opened, showing a green iris.

Kululu smiled. He experimented with moving it around like a radar. _Well. This benefits me greatly._ For some reason, though the things he saw out of this third eye weren't the same as the things he saw out of his other two eyes, it gave him a brilliant field of vision.

Even better, his brain was starting to interpert the things he saw faster than he could actually see them. He was seeing a future premonition of what was most likely to happen.

"KU, KU, KU!" Kululu laughed. He realized not only could he see, he could see the future. Nobody could defeat him now.

He rubbed his hands together. "I suppose now would be the best time to experiment with how strong I am. And hell, maybe I'll meet that Saburo guy while I'm at it and find out more about myself," he shrugged.

He wanted to feel powerful instead of weak and pathetic. He was tired of being pitied. He had been pitied too much by Natsumi and Giroro.

It was over.

* * *

Natsumi and her group stopped walked when they saw something approaching them. Natsumi drew in her breath as she saw the familiar yellow creature scurry to the top of some rubble to address them.

 _Oh nooo..._ She hadn't wanted Fuyuki to see any of the Keronians. At least Kululu was slightly more pathetic than the rest of them and easier to deal with.

"Hello, Natsumi. Ku, ku, ku," Kululu grinned. Saburo and Fuyuki froze as they looked up at Kululu.

Natsumi frowned. "You have eyes now." She said a very smart, observant thing. He seemed to have green, cat-like eyes.

"What do you mean now?" Saburo asked, confused,."Natsumi. Why is he here? Is... Is that Kululu?"

"But... the platoon is dead..." Fuyuki whispered. he was so confused, he just stood in shock.

"Ku. Yes, I have eyes now. I can see. And you'll regret escaping the explosion I made for you last time," Kululu told her.

"How do you intend to beat me? You're a weakling," Natsumi told him, chucking a rock at his head. He easily deflected it and hit it back toward her face, angling it like his future premonitions told him. It hit Natsumi in the face.

"Huh? When... When did you learn how to dodge anything?" Natsumi was confused.

"You won't be able to beat me now that I'm the sense of sight," Kululu bragged. "And I will destroy you for not killing Tamama."

Saburo and Fuyuki just blinked in confusion.

"Kululu... Why are you trying to kill us? We're... Well, _I'm_ your friend!" Saburo corrected himself mid-sentence.

"Oh? Are you Saburo?" Kululu asked. Saburo nodded.

"He doesn't remember us, Saburo," Natsumi told him. "He doesn't remember anything after mutating from radiation," she whispered quietly, "except how to be a jerk. Something I think he could do without."

Kululu pressed a button of an invention he had quickly made. A swarm of mutant rats crawled out of dark shafts of rubble, all with collars designed by Kululu.

As if playing with a remote-control toy, Kululu moved them around to attack. Saburo, Koyuki, and Fuyuki tried to dodge, but the rats seemed to predict their every move and chomped down toward their legs.

Natsumi charged at Kululu, and he easily dodged. Predicting her movements, he stabbed at her with a sharp piece of glass, causing several wounds.

After a few minutes of easily dodging blows and the rats attacking the three others very easily, Kululu yawned.

"Well, this was way too easy and boring. I have better things to do then to play with you. You'll die from my hoard of rats," Kululu told them turning away.

Saburo screamed as the rats piled on top of him, bringing him to the ground. "Kululu... Don't do this. Please, for our past friendship, call them off," he begged, looking sadly at his friend.

Kululu turned to him, glancing at Saburo for a moment. Nobody moved against Kululu as they waited for him to give in.

"It's true. You were probably my friend," Kululu realized. "I get an odd satisfaction when looking at you. A sort of nostalgia." He walked closer to Saburo, looking pitifully at him.

"But something's still missing. You aren't what I'm looking for. So by that logic, I can assume that your death will cause me little pain." Kululu grabbed Saburo by the hair, pulling him up to look at his eyes as he laid on his stomach. The rats trampled over him and did not chomp him any longer.

"I might have once found you interesting, but we've both changed, Saburo. I into something much more powerful, and you... Well, you seem boring. I wouldn't be friends with a boring person. So you must have changed," Kululu told him.

"B-boring?" Saburo's eyes seemed to fill with tears. He had always feared being boring, and his real concern with being trapped in the base had been how boring it was.

"I won't even kill you myself. You're too boring." Kululu dropped his head. "Ku, ku, ku. Good-bye, former friend."

He turned away and walked off, leaving the group for the hoard of rats. The rats, no longer being controlled by Kululu, were now up for grabs of Natsumi attacking. She kicked and tore, letting Fuyuki climb up some rubble onto safety.

Saburo remained on the ground, weakly letting the rats' infected mouths chew on him. His motivation had faltered as he tried to be tough and not cry, just in shock from the words Kululu had said.

Natsumi pushed the rats off of Saburo and pulled him up. "Snap out of it!" she told him, looking at his wounds. He was by far the most wounded, even though she herself was bleeding and Fuyuki was physically the least strongest.

"He... He left me... He said I was boring... I always thought I was an interesting guy, but maybe I'm not. I... I don't know who I am anymore," Saburo confessed. He slumped to the ground again.

"Clean Fuyuki's wounds, Koyuki," she requested. "I'm... I'm going to cheer up Saburo." All the rats were gone. Her feet were tougher than them and she could kick pretty far.

"You got it," Koyuki told her. Natsumi dropped down to Saburo's level, sitting by his side. He looked so sad.

"Let's clean your wounds up." She had expected that Saburo would have been able to take the Keronians' new forms and minds the most out of them, but even he hadn't been that strong. And she felt incredibly sorry for him.

Natsumi tried to clean his wounds, hoping he wasn't in too much pain. She tightened some rags around where the bleeding was so she could focus on Saburo.

"You saved my life, Natsumi," Saburo realized. "I would have lied there and gotten eaten."

"No you wouldn't have. You're tougher than that," she complimented, trying to get him to cheer up.

"No. No I'm not," he told her. "And this makes me think, not only did I not know me and Kululu, I didn't know you, either. I always thought you were just another silly person with a crush on me. You were always chasing after me, and although it was amusing at times it sometimes got old," he confessed.

Natsumi frowned. He knew about her crush on him? She blushed awkwardly.

"But you're a lot stronger than I gave you credit for. You're your own person. I always thought you were just some school girl, someone who wanted to be some sort of damsel in distress, but you're nothing like that. I really knew nothing about you," Saburo confessed. "I'm sorry, Natsumi. You're so strong, and I never realized that until now."

Natsumi smiled at the compliment.

"You're not some school girl with a crush on me anymore. You've grown," he smiled at her. Suddenly he started leaning in toward her, his lips puckered.

Natsumi blushed. Was he about to kiss her? She closed her eyes and puckered her lips slightly.

Saburo and her... They could still be a thing. Giroro had pretty much told her to get together with him, so there were no worries.

Suddenly, she felt a small kiss on her forehead. She opened her eyes to see Saburo was just giving her a gentle forehead kiss. He pulled away smiling gently at her.

"Sorry... I almost kissed you." He laughed a little bit.

Natsumi frowned.

"Don't frown like that, Natsumi," he smiled kindly. "Kissing you right now wouldn't be good. I don't want to put you in that awkward state of cleaning up my emotional mess, to make me feel like I wasn't just some boring guy," he told her. "It wouldn't be good for anybody." He shook his head. "Especially not you. Do you want to kiss me like that? Me using you just because you once had a crush on me and I need someone to idolize me? No. It's not a good idea. And it wouldn't be good for me, either," he told her. "So I'm glad I didn't do it. It wasn't meant to be."

"Saburo..." Natsumi whispered.

"A relationship isn't something you should want. What you want is respect, which I haven't given you for a very long time. Let me respect you," he told her.

Natsumi nodded. Talking to Saburo like an equal was a nice feeling. She had believed for a while that they had talked like it, but she realized that they hadn't been as close as she had first believed.

She had put his name in the hat originally, and he had put hers. They were the person they found the least close in the group. And because of various things, Natsumi hadn't closed that gap between them in her year staying in the base.

She smiled, happy that Saburo respected her. "Don't be worried about what Kululu said. Before he could see, he was a major wimpy weenie. He was such a weakling. You should have seen him!" Natsumi laughed.

"I'd have liked to see that." Saburo smiled, turning his sadness to anger at Kululu's betrayal.

The two smiled at each other.

* * *

Kululu found a pretty broken large building that used to be a skyscraper.

 _Perfect,_ he smiled. He would become the ruler of this world. But a ruler required a fortress.

And right now he needed to put his sight to work and start inventing.

Inventing was even easier than it had been non-mutated. After all, now that Kululu could no longer feel things, he could work beyond his limit, letting his hands become callused and course, the tips of his fingers bloodied from making so many inventions.

Even losing a sense was somewhat benefiting. His hearing was better, now that his headphones were picking up sounds he couldn't usually hear, and his fingers no longer felt pain.

Sure, he couldn't taste things like curry or smell anything, but that wasn't helpful to a war. He didn't need to taste anything.

"KU, KU, KU!" Kululu laughed. "I'll become the ruler of this pitiful planet. And then... everybody will see who's pitiful. And it isn't me."

He would take Giroro's goal and rub it in the dirt. He'd be the one to get all the water and invade the planet.

He'd complete all his goals. After all, he could see it in the future.

He could see himself as the dictator of this barren planet. He grinned.

It was the life he deserved. It belonged to him.

* * *

 **I'm trying to write a better, nicer Saburo lately in my fics. Do you think I'm getting him right?**

 **Please review.**


	15. Planning

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **With the power of line breaks the chapter just barely hits my two thousand words minimum. Hooray!**

 **Uhh, pretty slow chapter. But we have some Giroro? Yeah.**

* * *

"You attacked them." Dororo erupted from the floor, and simply stated to Kululu. "Even though I warned you not to."

"Yeah? So?" Kululu asked. Dororo was becoming an annoying thorn in his side. Of course he attacked them. Why wouldn't he?

"You disobeyed my warnings." Dororo hissed. He bared his arms like blades. "I'm sorry Kululu, I can not allow this to remain."

Kululu paused his work for a moment. "How about I make you a deal?" He asked finally, seeing that at the moment he didn't have enough inventions to take Dororo out. "I'm going to become the ruler of this pitiful planet, make myself a city dedicated in my honor, rule this dead mud ball." Kululu confided, "If you don't mess up my plans or bother me, I'll consider not killing them."

"Not interacting with them!" Dororo corrected, "I don't want them to die or mutate like us. Koyuki shouldn't have to go through the pain we went through." He hissed.

Kululu glanced up. _Koyuki?_ He wondered. She must have been the girl with the shuriken on her shirt. She must have been Dororo's ally.

Darn. Now he really wanted to kill her.

"Fine, I won't interact with them." Kululu agreed, "And in return you'll let me roam free and do my plans of world domination?"

Dororo thought for a moment, biting his lip. He didn't like this. Not at all. He didn't want the planet to be given to Kululu, but at the same time it was the only way to ensure that at least Kululu didn't bother his friends.

"Deal." He told him.

"Ku, ku, ku." Kululu smiled. Making a deal with him was like making a deal with the devil. When it suited him he would toss it aside.

They did not shake hands due to Dororo's claws.

* * *

Dororo did not get too close to Natsumi's group. He didn't want to break his vow and radiate them himself.

He did however leave presents for them like canned food so that they could survive out there.

Natsumi smiled, finding the package of canned food.

"I found something!" She yelled to them, taking the credit for herself. She didn't mention that it was left out there, as if waiting for her.

She didn't want to share what she believed were Giroro's presents for her.

Dororo frowned. He didn't really want her suspecting him, but she seemed a little too happy, like she was too hopeful.

Was she thinking the gifts were from Giroro? That would do no good. She didn't need to be hoping that she'd see Giroro.

If she saw Giroro it was very likely they'd get in a fight after all. And if they interacted and touched too much what if Giroro's radiation seeped off onto her.

So Dororo made up his mind to stop leaving presents for Natsumi. He'd have to focus on a different person.

Despite Dororo's pledge to remain unbiased and do what was right, he instantly drifted to Koyuki. It was extremely easy for him to find good food thanks to his nose. And leaving them out for where she was exploring was rather easy.

He tried to make it look non-obvious that he was leaving out gifts, but his willpower eventually broke after the third gift.

Koyuki hadn't picked up that she wasn't finding this food and that it had been laid out for her. She didn't suspect him at all.

But he hated not being able to communicate with her. He couldn't see her, couldn't hear her voice. He couldn't even smell her because he continued to be far away.

But he wanted to communicate with her. So he left a note for her just like he had for Natsumi the first time he had left gifts out.

 _Stay safe._ The note was quick and short, and it was written in the dirt hastily, but he wrote it anyway. He knew it was wrong to show Koyuki that someone was there but he wanted to be there for her, to communicate for her. To ease her heart and sorrows.

Koyuki smiled when she saw the note. _You too whoever you are!_ She wrote back. Dororo however could not see very well, so he was not able to read it.

* * *

Koyuki hummed at the food she had been gaining. Her friends and her had started a food reserve and had been searching for a more permanent shelter to make their home.

She wondered if she should tell anyone about the friendly spirit that had been helping her with her food gathering or if she should keep it a secret.

She eventually confided in Saburo, opposed to Natsumi. Natsumi had enough on her plate and might suspect that whatever was being left out for her was a trap.

"I think somebody's following us." Koyuki confessed to Saburo, "Somebody's been leaving food out for me, and letters."

Saburo frowned. "Letters?"

"Telling me to stay safe, things like that." Koyuki answered.

Saburo rubbed his chin. "And...Do you think it's one of the frogs? Maybe Kululu trying to trick us."

Koyuki thought for a moment. "I want it to be Dororo. I'd like to imagine the letters are from him. But...If it was Dororo, he'd see me. I wouldn't care how mutated he was. His soul would still be the same." She told Saburo. "He wouldn't not approach me."

"Then...You should stop taking the food. It might be harmful." He told her.

"I checked it, it's not poisoned." Koyuki told him proudly, "It's safe."

Saburo thought for a moment, "All right. Take the food. But don't...Don't tell Fuyuki about this. We don't want to get his hopes up falsely about Keroro. I heard from Natsumi that Keroro's worse than Kululu."

Koyuki nodded.

* * *

"So...The Keronians are alive..." Fuyuki murmured. "Did...Did you encounter any of them besides Kululu?" His eyes glowed excitedly. Keroro...His best friend could be alive!

He didn't want to hope. He didn't want to be harmed when his expectations broke, but if one of them had survived, perhaps Keroro had too.

"Uhh..." Natsumi munched on a twinkie. "I'm sorry." She told him. She couldn't let Fuyuki know of how evil Keroro had become. "I only encountered Tamama too. I don't know if the stupid frog is alive. From what I heard from Kululu, he's probably dead."

Fuyuki didn't need to see him. She would protect him.

She unknowingly told him a similar lie as to what she had been told about Giroro.

Fuyuki frowned but he had expected as much.

* * *

Giroro tried to stay away from the Pekoponians as Dororo had told him. Dororo was strong, he knew that he was about his level of strength. It would be a tough fight if Dororo tried to kill him.

Still, there was an unfathomable hatred towards the Pekoponians that he couldn't control. He wanted to destroy them. To rule them.

His invader spirit burned in his soul. He needed to prove himself as an invader.

The only memories he had were the ones of him as a soldier fighting for Keron. Keron had ordered him to invade the planet, and he would do as they commanded.

"I'll take down those Pekoponians. And I'll keep Dororo away." He knew sadly he couldn't do it on his own though. Dororo was an equal to him and if Dororo came in to protect the Pekoponians he wouldn't be able to fight against them.

He needed help. And help was a thing Giroro desperately didn't like.

Kululu was much too egotistical now to become an ally, so the answer was clear who he would have to seek out.

Giroro headed to Keroro and Tamama's territory. At the same time though it felt like there was a screw lose out of his personality. Like something was missing.

He shook his head, waving the feeling off.

* * *

Keroro and Tamama were kissing in a cozy little house they had made for themselves with various splotches of bad decoration.

"Ew. Gross." Giroro spat, seeing them kiss. He didn't want to see that. He wanted to plan an attack for a war, not see his old platoon mates kiss.

"Why do you interrupt us?" Tamama hissed.

"Are you here to take our water?" Keroro asked suspiciously.

"No. I'm here to help our mutual goal." Giroro explained, "I have a proposition for you."

"Um...Sorry, your gross and ugly. I'm not into that." Tamama rejected him.

"I'm loyal to Tamama." Keroro took his proposition as something entirely different too. Giroro looked baffled.

"I was talking about a war proposition!" Giroro told them. "For the invasion."

"I thought we agreed to work separately on that." Keroro reminded him, "You're an unneeded member of my platoon. I only need a platoon of me and Tamama. Or at least that's what Tamama says."

Tamama grinned widely at Keroro's praise. "Good boy." He told him, kissing him.

"There's four Pekoponians roaming around though. And I would attack them alone but Dororo is being a thorn in my side. He wants me to keep away from them because he remembers them or something. But I want to invade. I want to trample whoever thinks they'll protect this planet." Giroro hissed, "But I can't do it alone. Dororo and I are evenly matched."

"Four of them? I thought there was only two!" Keroro cried.

"They multiplied!" Tamama shivered, fearfully.

Giroro knew smacking both their heads wouldn't work out in his favor. He waited for them to process the information that there were more Pekoponians than believed.

"We'll discuss who gets the glory of invading this planet after defeating them. It'll be a temporary alliance. And then we'll fight." Giroro told them. He knew they didn't particularly like him, and that was fine by him. After all he didn't like them either.

"So you in? I know I can't do this alone and I know you want to invade. I also know you'll probably be bothered by Dororo about this too." Giroro told them.

Keroro and Tamama thought for a moment.

"I want to invade." Keroro confessed, "I am a Sergeant after all. But...It's Tamama's choice. I do what he want."

"I just want Mr. Sergeant. And this doesn't have much to do with him." Tamama hissed, "But I'm not cruel. If Mr. Sergeant wants to fight I'll fight with him. But after we're done, we're taking you down!"

Giroro grinned. "Deal." He smiled. They might have outnumbered him, but he was more skilled. He could easily beat them.

Keroro, Tamama and Giroro all cackled and resonated with each other, forming their surprise attack plan.

When Giroro went out to get some sleep before the mission, he felt a small burning sensation on his cheek. Like he had been hit there...Or at least a memory had.

It wasn't a real feeling, just a sort of memory. But he didn't know of what.

What was he forgetting?

 _Whatever it is, I'll face it soon enough._ He realized.

He'd destroy some Pekoponians, Invade the planet, and beat the hidden protector of Pekopon, Dororo.

And he would succeed.

"Nothing will stop me." He smiled to himself

* * *

 **Please review! Sorry it's very short. I didn't have much time before bedtime. I wanted to go to bed on time because tomorrow is my first day of college. Horray!**

 **Well, by the time I post this, it won't be my first day of college anymore. So I guess this is a note to myself in the future. Cool. Myself at this present time will get spoilers. Nice.**


	16. Have To Go

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

 **Lots of stuff happens this chapter. I hope you like it.**

* * *

Natsumi's group had found a temporary shelter of an old house. They had tried to straighten it up and make it into something somewhat homely. They didn't need it to be permanent. They just needed to be able to camp so that they could continue their search for food.

They had been out there for eight days altogether. And they felt pretty confident about how well they were surviving.

They were close to the beach, actually. Natsumi was hoping to find some fresh sea food and see how the oceans were faring from the apocalypse.

She had good memories of the beach. It was always a fun place.

They hadn't encountered Kululu in days, which was very good. Natsumi kept on the lookout for Keroro and Tamama, but she hadn't seen them, either.

It was quiet. A little bit too quiet.

She was unaware that in the shadows, a distance away Keroro, Tamama and Giroro were waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

* * *

"They did multiply," Keroro murmured. "Should we take them individually? There's three of us, and four of them."

Giroro sneered. They sounded overly cautious and optimistic. They were probably weak. He couldn't see what they looked like, but it probably didn't matter.

"There's two males and two females. I'll take whoever is the strongest," Giroro volunteered.

"The one with the most vibrating footsteps seems to be one of the females. She had a tough muscle mass," Keroro told him. "The one with the angry-sounding voice."

"Hm. I'll take her then." Giroro called dibs.

"I'll take the weak one. The small boy. I might as well take the other dude too, and that leaves Tamama to have a rematch with the tough ninja lady." Keroro glanced over at Tamama and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. "You ready for your rematch?"

"My tongue's regrown. It's strong. I'll swallow her whole," Tamama smiled.

They all laughed and resonated. It was time to strike.

* * *

Keroro tried to take the lead, appearing first.

"Gero, Gero, Gero!" He announced his presence. "Pekoponians! I see that you're trying to make this land your own. But this is already territory of the Keron army!"

"Crap," Natsumi whispered to herself. Behind Keroro, Tamama approached ,showing his presence. Giroro stayed out of sight, ready to shoot whoever made the most noise.

"S-Sarge...?" Fuyuki asked. Although Keroro was mutated and looked different, he recognized his friend. "SARGE!" Tears streamed down Fuyuki's face. He slowly took a few steps forward.

"Fuyuki, no!" Natsumi told him. As Fuyuki walked toward him, Keroro slapped Fuyuki away, onto the ground.

"Get away from me, pathetic Pekoponian!" Keroro snarled. Fuyuki cried parenthetically in the dirt.

"Y-you're alive...Sarge, why? Why would you hurt me?" he asked.

"He doesn't remember you. None of the frogs do," Natsumi explained. "It... It was a side effect."

Fuyuki cried. Natsumi approached her brother to comfort him, but a bullet shot forward, nicking her arm.

"Got ya." Giroro revealed himself out of the bushes. Natsumi's face grew pale as she saw Giroro's face. His eyes were completely gone. Black holes remained in their place - wide, sad sockets. His deranged, twisted grin didn't help give any expression to his face. His skin was so incredibly course that it made her naseaus. Slits like scars were all along his knees.

He looked hideous. Natsumi fell to the ground, not even bleeding that much. She just vomitted at the sight of him.

 _Stop this... He's alive! You should be celebrating! Don't... Don't vomit at his appearance... Don't vomit... THAT is your lover..._ Natsumi begged herself, but she just kept emptying her stomach.

"I thought you said this one was the strongest," Giroro told Keroro. He walked up to her, placing his gun at her face to tilt it up. To hear the pathetic sound of her desperate sobs.

"I thought she was," Keroro shrugged. "The little boy is weak, too."

Koyuki got her ninja blades ready. It seemed Saburo and she were the only ones not out of commission. Tamama's tongue entwined around her arms, though, keeping her from throwing any attacks.

Excreting a tranquilizer from his saliva, he made her fall to the ground. He'd play with his food later. He needed to deal with Fuyuki.

"You take the other male. I want to eat the smaller one," Tamama instructed as Fuyuki continued to sob on the floor.

"Okey-dokey, my love. Kill him good!" Keroro smiled. Saburo shook his head. Without a pen, he was defenseless.

Keroro approached him, a vibration rippling through the ground with every step. Saburo was agile. - he could jump so that Keroro couldn't effectively locate him, but he couldn't remain in the air forever. And when he came down, Keroro was ready to beat him.

Tamama had other plans for Fuyuki, though. He was going to make him suffer and die. _He's from Mr. Sergeant's past. He talked to him like he was a friend. For Mr. Sergeant to be mine, I can't let him remember anyone. Not even this guy._ He didn't want Keroro to leave him. And if Keroro found a stronger connection with this Pekoponian, he was in trouble.

Fuyuki just sobbed and sobbed as Tamama approached.

* * *

Giroro put his gun to his side at his belt. "Do you care about Pekopon?" he asked the pathetic Pekoponian that gagged whenever she so much as looked at him.

"Y-yes!" She finally got a word out edgewise.

"Good. Then I can effectively beat you until you're dead fully. This will be fun," he spoke. He wanted to make defeating a Pekoponian soldier last, to savor the moment of crushing a defender of Pekopon.

Natsumi felt his fist make impact with her face. Even his skin felt disgusting against hers. She tried not to gag again as she was pressed into the dirt.

As Giroro punched and beat her, the disgust started fading from her stomach as she begin coughing up blood. Instead sorrow replaced it.

 _Giroro... You're alive... But you don't remember me, you hate me..._ Giroro had told her he'd always love her. He had promised her. But she was nothing to him anymore.

For some reason, Keroro could remember Tamama, but Giroro didn't remember her. She continued crying, more silent.

"Y-you're alive... But you want me dead," she finally murmured out.

"Yes, I'm alive. And with no wounds. You're a weak Pekoponian," Giroro mocked.

Natsumi struggled against his body. She rolled out of the way of his next hit, kicking him in the stomach. "I'm sorry!" she yelled out, letting him easily find her.

Giroro grinned and shot at her leg. She fell to the ground, trying not to cry from the pain. "Do you really not remember me, Giroro? Do you really not remember us?"

Giroro paused. _I knew her?_ he wondered. Was this Pekoponian a slave of his? Or a companion? "The past doesn't matter. Only the invasion does. I live for invasion," he told her. He put the gun at her head, fixing his finger on the trigger. "Game over... Natsumi."

Giroro hadn't realized that for a brief moment he had remembered her name. It had always been a part of him. He just assumed she had mentioned it in their fight.

She looked up at him, confused. _He remembers my name!_

* * *

Fuyuki was in a sorrier shape than Natsumi. As expected, seeing Keroro's new form and how he cared about him very little broke Fuyuki's hopes.

And Tamama was right there to destroy the rest of his body. His tongue slithered around Fuyuki's foot, taking off the shoe.

"T-Tamama... Th-the sarge... H-he doesn't remember me!" Fuyuki cried, hoping Tamama would listen to him.

"I know," Tamama smiled. His tongue entwined Fuyuki's foot, crushing it in his mouth. Fuyuki screamed as the bones in his toes shattered.

He screamed loudly. But he made no attempt to struggle. "Sarge..." he moaned out, begging for help.

Keroro didn't even glance at him. He was too busy focused on Saburo, throwing him onto the ground like a rag, over and over again.

Koyuki just slept, thanks to the tranquilizer.

Fuyuki sobbed. Hope was lost.

* * *

Dororo gritted his teeth. He could smell blood. Blood of all his friends.

 _They attacked, despite what I told them!_ He frowned. His legs started moving on his own, closer to the battlefield.

 _No!_ he told himself. He could feel his eyes dilate. He covered his nose.

He couldn't help his friends. If he got any closer, the smell of their blood would make him go insane with hunger. It was one of the few times his willpower lost himself to his mutation, in the presence of blood.

His sense of smell was just too good and he desired the blood too much.

So he couldn't help his friends. He couldn't protect them.

 _I need to get help._ He couldn't let them die. That would be wrong. So quickly he went into his tunnels and moved as fast as he could to allies he could ask for.

* * *

He first asked Kululu for help, a mistake.

"Nah, I don't feel like it," Kululu told him easily. The fight did interest him, though. And as soon as Dororo was gone, he departed for it himself.

 _I don't want to fight, but if I could isolate Tamama after the fight... Ku, ku, ku. It would be a perfect time to end him!_ Kululu plotted.

Dororo frowned. But he had figured Kululu wouldn't help, anyway.

There was only one person who would help, and had the means to protect the weaker friends. But seeing her... He just hoped his note-writing would reach her.

* * *

The Nishizawa fortress had been made mostly underground to keep Momoka's family safe. They were living in luxury with no need to risk going up to the surface. They still suspected it was radiated.

Momoka sat in her large room, playing with her Fuyuki plushy. She missed him, but there was no way to contact him.

All she could do was rely on the fact that the Keronians had probably saved him, taking him off planet or something, and although he might be far from her, at least he was safe.

That was enough for her.

 _Fuyuki..._ She thought to herself, squeezing her plushy. Did he think of her often? Did he have an alien girlfriend?

Was he having fun with Keroro?

All that mattered to her was that he was safe. And although she really had no confirmation, she could imagine him safe.

Unbeknownst to her, Dororo dug a hole under her bed and sneaked toward her wall. He wrote a quick message and then quickly disappeared, teleporting away with his ninja abilities.

"Huh?" she asked, seeing something new on her beautifully perfect wall. A message.

 _Fuyuki is in trouble. He'll die without your help._ A location was specified. _Get a helicopter or something... The air is safe. Save him._

Momoka immediately got up.

"Fuyuki needs me?" she spoke. It didn't matter if the atmosphere was poisoned or if someone was trying to lure her out. All that mattered was Fuyuki.

Quickly she ran to the hovercraft place in her fortress. Her father was planning to launch them into space if the atmosphere never showed signs of clearing up.

She kicked a few guards out of the way. She didn't need to know how to pilot a helicopter much, but it didn't matter.

"I'm coming, Fuyuki!" She pressed a button and the ceiling disappeared. Soon, she was in the air.

She'd fight hell itself for Fuyuki. Nothing could stop or hurt her if Fuyuki was in danger.

* * *

As the gun was held to Natsumi's head, she saw her brother crying in the background. He couldn't face the frogs' mutation. He wasn't fighting back.

He couldn't face losing his friend. Similar to how she couldn't face the new Giroro.

 _No. I can't let this happen. I can't be weak. My life is worth more than this._ She had been shocked for a little bit, but she had to focus on her primary goal - survival. Her hand shot forward as Giroro's finger hit the trigger.

A risky move, but she was faster.

She knocked the gun out of the way, just barely nicking her pigtails. Her ears rung from the gun shot, but she didn't need to hear to fight.

She stood up and balled her hand into a fist.

And with all her strength, she punched her old boyfriend in the face, sending him flying.

Giroro flew in the air, shocked. _I thought she was weaker than this!_ In one hit, she had easily thrown him aside and recovered from her injuries.

He grabbed some grenades from his side and started throwing at her. Like lighting, she hit them away, in different directions and not batting an eyelid as they exploded.

He could hear Natsumi's determination. Her grunt of not even paying that much attention to him, but being focused on the battle.

She was leagues above him, and his legs started shaking as he just felt the weight of her skills.

He ran toward her and he made a sound to locate her weakest point. Finding it, his hand shot forward, ready to punch it.

Her arms were longer, though. And a second punch landed on Giroro's jaw.

This time as he flew he felt something much different - admiration. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time. But he was confused by it.

 _Why... Why am I happy?_ he wondered. A gleeful happiness clouded his mind at getting punched. He couldn't even feel where her fist had punched him, but there was this sort of nostalgic glow about her touch.

 _Who... Who is Natsumi? How do I know her name? And what is she to me?_

Giroro wasn't able to think for very long, because there was an explosion in the sky as a helicopter exploded.

Everybody looked up, slightly confused, and stopping their battles for a moment.

A girl skyrocketed down like a superhero. Her hair was long and light blue.

"Sh-she's going to fall!" Natsumi realized. She didn't recognize the girl at all.

However, the girl pressed a button for an emergency parachute moments before the fatal moment.

"I'M COMING, FUYUKI!" she screamed.

Tamama stopped his torturous bone-crushing for a moment. "Who are you?" he asked as the girl landed. She just glared at him.

"Even if it's you, Tamama, I'll still destroy you for touching my Fuyuki!" Momoka kicked him in the abdomen, sending Tamama flying. Then she dropped down to Fuyuki's side.

"F-Fuyuki! Are you okay?" she asked, pulling him into a tight hug.

Fuyuki's eyes slowly gained color again as he realized who was in front of him, though slightly older than he remembered. "M-Momoka?" he asked, shocked.

Momoka smiled and nodded, little tears coming out of her eyes. "Yep!"

Fuyuki sobbed and weakly put his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. "I... I thought you were dead! You aren't dead! Unless I'm dead, of course. But... you're here, in my arms! I missed you so much..." Fuyuki just placed his head on Momoka's shoulders, crying in happiness more than from his terrible terrible wounds.

Natsumi smiled. One person had come back to them in the flesh and still her everyday self. And that was enough happiness to spark hope and optimism in her.

And Giroro was alive as well. Even if he wanted to kill her and was a terrible mutant.

There was hope. And that was enough for that day.

It had been a victory.

Keroro, seeing he was outnumbered, helped Giroro onto his feet. "Let's find where Tamama was sent flying," he told him. Tamama had been sent flying a far way. "We're more outnumbered right now. We'll come back later."

"Working together was a failure," Giroro noted. We no longer need to cooperate." He had a lot to think about. He weakly stumbled away from Keroro's side.

So Keroro turned away to look on his own.

* * *

Tamama woke up by the cliffside of a beach. The blue-haired girl that had kicked him had been familiar. It brought a sort of happiness to him that he thought he could only feel in Keroro's arms.

But it was sort of the safe happiness, the sort of happiness that didn't require constantly fighting for, controlling. The steady happiness.

Was... Was she his friend? Tamama hadn't really thought about his life much. Keroro was all he needed, so losing a chunk of his memories hadn't bothered him.

He remembered Keroro, his platoon, and that woman. That was enough.

But he didn't remember the blue-haired girl.

"Huh." He rubbed his head.

"Ku, ku, ku. So you're awake. I was hoping you'd wake up soon," Kululu spoke, a knife was pressed up against Tamama's neck.

Tamama slowly realized what position he was in. Kululu had been waiting for him.

 _Maybe... Maybe I've been too focused on the sorrow of how Mr. Sergeant left me,_ Tamama realized. He wanted to live. He wanted to find out about the blue-haired girl. He wanted to focus more on who he was instead of controlling Keroro.

But Kululu seemed rather angry at him. He hoped he could play his cards right to get Kululu to not murder him.

"You're going to tell me some things," Kululu instructed. "And if I like them, I might not kill you right now. I might wait until later."

Tamama knew the situation. He gulped. He knew he had to answer well.

"Who is the girl with sparkly eyes?" Was Kululu's first question.

Tamama hadn't expected that. He started laughing. "Out of all the things you could ask me, you ask that? That's hilarious!" Tamama laughed. Kululu pressed the knife closer. "She's that woman!" Seeing that Kululu didn't like that answer, he corrected himself. "Angol Mois," he uttered out.

"Mois..." Kululu whispered. "That sounds right. Her name is Mois." He smiled and stopped pressing the knife to Tamama's neck. "Now... why did you kill her?" he asked. "And be careful with this answer, because it won't ensure your life. It just will ensure how painful your death is."

"Wait... Is the reason you hate me so much because I killed that woman?" Tamama asked. He laughed again. "That's hilarious! She was worth nothing, so why would anyone hate me over killing her?"

"She wasn't nothing!" Kululu hissed. "She was more important than your pitiful life!"

"No she wasn't. She was a terrible whore who lied, was extremely shallow and petty, and was stealing my man. She deserved to die," said Tamama. He hated that woman, and even after she was gone, he'd always hate her. She was one thing that echoed in his mind, extremely clear.

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT MY GIRLFRIEND LIKE THAT!" Kululu drew blood from Tamama's neck with the knife, twisting it into the skin until it bled. Tamama whimpered in pain.

"Girlfriend?" he asked between his tears. Kululu was mad, and Tamama knew he should be negotiating for his life, but he couldn't help but laugh. This whole situation was a surreal level of hilariousness. If he died, at least it would be laughing at how pathetic Kululu was. "You think she was your girlfriend?"

"Of course she was my girlfriend," Kululu told him simply. "She's constantly on my mind. We shared a very close bond."

"She's not your girlfriend, dude. I remember her better than you do," Tamama said. "You might think she's your girlfriend because you can't remember her, but I can assure you she's not. So there's no reason to try to kill me." Tamama tried to negotiate for his life. "She was a wicked woman. She never loved you."

Kululu took a deep breath. He didn't want to hear this.

"She loved Mr. Sergeant. There was absolutely nothing between you. She might even have hated you, like everyone else did. You were frightened of her, and now your confused because of your memories. I can help you, though. We'll destroy the memories of the wicked whore together..." Tamama tried to convince him.

Kululu shoved him off the cliff before he could finish. Tamama yelled, reaching out for something to grab onto, but there was nothing.

He just tried to look around, but his sense of taste could only taste sea air. He fell to his doom, to the salty waters below.

"Good riddance," Kululu hissed, cleaning off his hands from the Tamama. He turned away from the cliff side, but dropped to his knees to cry.

 _She... She wasn't anything to me? Really?_ Kululu didn't know how to cope with this news. Tamama might have been right. His words about how she never loved him made sense. He had never actually confirmed they were in a relationship. He had just assumed. But he still cried.

 _My mind is jumbled and confused. Maybe she is nothing to me._ Earlier he had desperately wanted memories of this girl... Mois. But maybe he didn't want those memories. Maybe having no memories was better than the pain of having them.

She was dead, and in his memories, they weren't even happy together. He didn't need to go through heartbreak of a dead person. It was better to just cut himself off from it.

But... deep down, he knew at least he had loved her. He cried, mourning the relationship they never had.

He knew he cared about it. That was why there was a crushing disappointed feeling.

* * *

Keroro called out for Tamama, even though neither of their hearing was superb. He could feel his small movements a tiny little ways away.

But suddenly, he was gone from the land. Keroro picked up his speed, running, just as Kululu left the area.

"Momoka..." Fuyuki spoke as he saw his old friend Keroro run off. And unlike Natsumi, his new figure didn't cause him nauseous. He still had hope of returning to the old days. "My feet are damaged...Can we...?"

"Follow him?" Momoka asked, still hugging Fuyuki. She was a little disappointed that after reuniting, he wanted to go after Keroro, but she supposed that was one of the reasons she loved him. His kind heart. He had many people important to him.

She nodded and helped him onto her back, chasing after Keroro.

Keroro got to the cliff side. He knew Tamama had been there, and he knew where Tamama was. He had somehow been pushed off the cliff to his death.

"TAMAMA," he screamed, "TAMAMA!" he screamed again, crying. He couldn't lose Tamama. Not again.

He remembered very briefly leaving Tamama alone for three months. It was part of the reason he had stuck by Tamama after the mutation. His guilt.

His mutated self was Tamama's lover, but the guilt was the real Keroro cared very much for Tamama's well being as a platoon mate and as a friend.

Suddenly, the image of Tamama skewering himself on a sharp rock and dying filled Keroro's imagination. Tamama might have died.

Tears fell down Keroro's face. He wiped them off, feeling his own hands and how sad he was.

"Sarge..." Fuyuki whispered behind him, seeing him crying. "It's okay."

Keroro continued crying as images filled his head. The images weren't imaginative pieces, though. It was his own life. His memories had awakened from the death of Tamama.

"Fuyuki..." he whispered, turning around.

Fuyuki smiled, weakly. "You remember me."

Keroro nodded. "A little bit," he admitted. "I'm sorry for hurting you."

"It's okay. Just come back to me," Fuyuki smiled calmly. He reahced out a hand to Keroro.

Keroro shook his head. "I don't know what to do without Tamama. He's dead now."

"You can be my friend again," Fuyuki soothingly told him.

Keroro shook his head. "It's all my fault we've ended up like this. All Tamama wanted was for my life to be his, to pay for my mistakes. I didn't care if my life was ruined because I ruined his. I was yours for three months, and three months Tamama suffered having to eat people," he said.

He was silent for a moment. "He's calling me... in my head. He wants me to be his again."

"You don't have to go," Fuyuki pleaded.

"Keroro, Tamama wouldn't actually want you harmed," Momoka tried to help out. "It's just some weird thing. Tamama honestly loved you. He didn't want you to repent for some mistakes or something."

Keroro shook his head. "I promised him we'd be together. He needs me." And with that, he walked off of the cliff side, to the watery death below.

Fuyuki screamed loudly, but Keroro couldn't hear.

And soon, he was gone. And only Fuyuki's sobs filled the air.

He was gone. Along with Fuyuki's chances of repairing their friendship.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	17. Safe Haven

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Not much happens this chapter, except build up and stuff. Story related stuff and the plot comes in and the main problem. So guess stuff does happen.**

 **It's nice to have Momoka in the story again.**

* * *

Natsumi dragged herself upward and watched as Momoka trudged back with a crying Fuyuki.

"H-he's dead," Fuyuki cried. Momoka calmly wrapped her arms around him.

"What happened to him and Tamama? They looked so different." She was confused.

Saburo moaned in pain and helped himself up from the ground. "That you, Momoka?"

"Yeah, it's me," Momoka nodded. "You all look like you're in pretty sorry shape."

Koyuki finally awoke with a yawn. "Ewww... I feel gross," she shuddered, Tamama's saliva still covering her body. "Natsumi? Are you okay?" She noticed that Natsumi was bloody and bleeding.

Natsumi nodded. "Giroro's gone, so I'm fine. And... And Momoka's back."

"Momoka!" Koyuki smiled and bounded up to the girl, giving her an affectionate smile. "Our little group of More Peach Summer Snow is mostly back together!" she optimistically told her.

Momoka rubbed Fuyuki's back, looking sadly at the poor crying boy.

"Yeah. I assumed you were all somewhere safe. Like in space," Momoka told her. Then she frowned. "And the group's not complete just yet."

"Oh... Oh yeah," Koyuki frowned. Angol Mois, similar to how she didn't know what happened to Dororo, was gone.

"We need to find shelter and heal our injuries," Natsumi groaned. "Figure out what to do and catch up with what's going on with Momoka."

Momoka nodded. "We should go to my fortress then," she suggested. "It's safe and it's got lots of people. Doctors, my parents, and all sorts of servants. You all don't need to live a hard life out here any longer. You'll live the rest of your life in luxury."

"There are other people alive?" Natsumi felt herself grinning. Her life... It was finally coming back together.

Momoka nodded. "So come with me."

They all agreed that going with Momoka was the best option.

* * *

Fuyuki and Natsumi were too weak to walk, so Momoka and Koyuki carried them on their backs. Saburo was bruised and injured, but he insisted on not getting help.

Eventually, Fuyuki stopped crying over Keroro and just lovingly snuggled up against Momoka. "I'm so happy you're back," he told her over and over again.

Momoka smiled.

"What caused him to cry?" Natsumi asked weakly.

"Keroro," Momoka told him. "He... He jumped over the cliff to his death." She frowned. "I'm sorry... If I had come sooner he might have lived, but... I didn't."

Natsumi frowned. Tears welled in her eyes. The stupid frog had been her friend, despite everything that happened. It was sad to hear that he had passed away.

But perhaps it was for the best. Sometimes someone being dead was better than them being a monster.

 _Giroro... Did I want you to be dead opposed to being a monster? Is there hope you'll remember who I am, or will you live a terrible half-existence only thirsting for water like Kululu was?_ Natsumi wondered. She couldn't bear to think of Giroro having that life.

But at the same time she didn't know if she was strong enough to put him out of his misery and end his life.

She had loved him. Very strongly. And although she was physically repulsed by him now, she still loved him. Her heart was still broken from his betrayal.

"What happened to the Keronians? Why was Tamama hurting Fuyuki?" Momoka asked, her eyes wide with confusion. "What's been going on? Why are you out here and not safe?"

"When the bombs dropped, we were brought into the base for safety. It saved us from the radiation," Fuyuki explained. "They... forgot to invite you. I thought you were dead... I missed you so much." He held Momoka tighter and tighter. "I will never let you go."

"You're going to have to let me go to get medical treatment, Fuyuki," Momoka smiled. Fuyuki nuzzled his face into her hair.

"You're so pretty, Momoka," he murmured. "I forgot how pretty you were."

Momoka blushed intensely. He was suddenly so clingy after thinking she was dead. And she approved one hundred percent. She felt his lips lightly graze against her ears.

"F-Fuyuki!" Momoka squealed.

"Sorry. Your hair's just so fluffy," Fuyuki apologized. "I didn't mean to touch your ear."

"N-not in public... Wh-when we get to my home... Later," she promised, stuttering out small promises.

It was Fuyuki's turn to blush. He buried his face into her shoulder.

"Anyway..." Saburo cleared his throat awkwardly. _Guess things are over officially between Fuyuki and me. Would have been nice to actually hear an official statement from his mouth, but I won't push him since I pushed him into whatever we were into in the first place._ "We were pretty safe in the base, for the most part."

"Then why'd you leave?" Momoka asked.

"Three months in, the frogs left the base to find Tamama and Mois who had been out grocery shopping during the bombings. They hadn't ever returned," Natsumi explained to her.

"And Tamama survived all that? Well... until he died, I guess... But I think Keroro only thought he was dead." She hoped to herself that it was the case. Tamama was her best friend, and she didn't want to lose him. "What about Mois?" Momoka asked.

"Actually I don't know what happened to her," Natsumi admitted. "We've seen her about as much as Dororo. Which is not at all."

"So you've seen the other Keronians?" Momoka asked. She had only been paying attention to Tamama and Keroro.

"Yeah, anyway." Saburo continued the story. "Keroro insisted on leaving to find Tamama. They left the base and never returned. Eventually, since Kululu wasn't doing upkeep, we ran out of food and had to leave the base." He gave the short version of the story.

"And what happened to the Keronians? Why... Why do they look so different?" Momoka asked.

"They've mutated because of the radiation since they've got a different biology than us. That's why they look like monsters." Natsumi tried to keep the disgust out of her voice.

"From what Natsumi told me about what Kululu told her, they've each lost a bunch of their senses to heighten one of their other senses into a super sense. I wish I could do that," Koyuki dreamed.

"Koyuki! You'd look like a monster," said Natsumi.

"So? I'd get a super sense!" she said excitedly. Natsumi sighed.

"Why was Tamama being so mean?" Momoka asked.

"It's a side effect. All of the frogs have lost all their memories. They only care about the invasion and water. Giroro attacked me... He tried to kill me. Kululu didn't even know Saburo's name. He discarded him. I think they remember each other a little, but not us. Anyway, Tamama wanted to do whatever it took to keep the stupid frog with just him. Even kill," said Natsumi.

Momoka frowned. "That doesn't sound like any of them... That's horrible. You've truly been through a lot."

"What about you, Momoka?" Fuyuki asked. "What struggles have you gone through?"

"Uhh..." Momoka had been living in luxury eating cake while Fuyuki had been crying about her and everybody had been losing it from boredom. "I've actually lived quite peacefully. The Nishizawa company is trying to figure out how to bring the world to greatness again and sometimes I attend those meetings."

They all blinked at her. Her life sounded vastly better than hers. She even got to be with her family.

"That's great!" Fuyuki was honestly happy for her. He hugged her tightly. Momoka smiled. She was happy he was happy.

They continued traveling.

* * *

Eventually, they came to the ruins of Momoka's old mansion. "It's underneath," she explained. Using a key, she opened a hidden door and brought them in.

"Mistress Momoka." Paul bowed. "We were all worried for you, you know it's not safe out there... Is that Fuyuki?"

"He needs medical treatment! The best that we have! Natsumi and Saburo, too," she yelled. Guards came out of nowhere to take them to a medical bay and treat them.

"All I really want is a bath. I'm fine," Koyuki insisted. She didn't want Tamama all over her. Momoka granted her a bath.

And they all tried to heal from the attack.

* * *

"Natsumi," Saburo called to her, who was across from him. "You really fought hard, despite it being against your friend. I'm impressed."

"Thanks, I guess." She frowned. "Nothing to be impressed about. I should have fought sooner."

"We might have found more adults here and a lot more people, but I think we're still a small group. And I think everybody would agree that you are the leader of that group," he told her. "You deserve it."

Natsumi smiled. "Thanks."

Saburo and Koyuki clapped for her.

Fuyuki was away getting foot surgery so he couldn't clap.

* * *

As soon as Fuyuki woke up, he squeezed Momoka's hand as she stood by his side.

"I never want to wake up and see that you're gone again," Fuyuki whispered to her.

"I don't want to be separated again, either," Momoka told him. She leaned down, as if to kiss him.

She recoiled though, too embarrassed. "S-sorry..." she apologized. Fuyuki brought a hand up and caressed her cheek.

"Don't be," he told her. "It's fine. I... I want to kiss you too. I've wanted to for a long time."

Momoka turned pink. "Really?"

"I told you, didn't I? I never want to be without you again. I love you," Fuyuki declared.

A big smile grew across Momoka's face. She leaned down and gently covered his face in kisses. "I missed you so much. I'm glad we're finally together."

"I was so sad when you were gone," Fuyuki told her. They just continued sweetly kissing.

* * *

Natsumi was still confined to medical bay to sleep, but she was somewhat able to wander around the Nishizawa fortress during the day. She elected her group to not bother Fuyuki, since he was busy with Momoka, and they all agreed that Fuyuki deserved some happiness after the death of Keroro.

Natsumi noticed that it was loads bigger than the base. She was also informed that little fortresses for the Nishizawas were all over the world, and there were tunnels connecting them.

Nobody could get bored there.

"Hey," Natsumi waved, greeting Momoka's dad, Baio. She was happy that Momoka got to stay with her parents and that both of them were safe. It sent a wave of jealousy down her spine, though, as she thought of her own mother.

Aki likely hadn't survived. She was strong, but strong enough to survive a nuclear apocalypse? She didn't know.

"How is the world revitalization project going?" Natsumi asked him.

He typed on his computer. "Good, well, good enough. We've got plenty of people who've survived thanks to our efforts and shelters, and the water has gotten better rather quickly. Thanks to your group, we also know that the atmosphere and air are safe now so we can finally venture out to the surface instead of sending probes out there, but... Not everything has bounced back," he admitted.

"What hasn't?" Natsumi asked. "We won't mutate out there, will we?" she shivered.

"Not unless you spend a lot of time around a constant source of radiation," he chuckled, "No, it's something else. When you were out there, did you notice what was lacking?"

"Hmmm... People?" Natsumi asked, she remembered the barren wasteland above.

"That too, but mostly plants. Not a single plant has been able to grow. Not even down here artificially. We have seeds, but they just won't grow. It's not even that they're duds. We dig up the seed six weeks later, and the seed hasn't even sprouted." Baio's face grew darker. "Without plants, we won't be able to replenish the food source. We won't be able to farm animals because no herbivores will ever be present. And most importantly, our air will eventually run out. We will all die," he said.

Natsumi's face grew horrified.

Momoka's father chuckled. "Don't worry, the adults are working on it. So don't you worry about it, it's not your fight. I'm sure we'll figure out what's going on with the plants soon enough."

Natsumi still was a bit frightened, though. Things was more serious than she had thought.

 _That means world revitalization isn't going as well as they think..._ she realized.

She hoped they learned how to grow plants soon enough. But she remembered that in Dororo's garden, his plants had started dying after a while, too. She had thought they just died because he had left, but if she remembered correctly, his garden had an automatic sprinkler system just in case he was gone.

It shouldn't have died, even with him not present.

So why had it?

Natsumi was worried for her planet.

Her hope couldn't end now.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	18. Sixth Sense

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

 **The last-ish of the flashback chapters? I think. Here you are. Kurumois centric chapter.**

* * *

Kululu cleaned out some supplies in an old store, trying to find stuff for the new city he was building. Tamama was dead. But he didn't feel any better.

"Well... this is interesting..." Kululu looked at a pack that he had found, it was an old curry sauce pack. He decided to slather on the curry on some meat from a rat that he was now cooking to make sure he didn't get any diseases.

He didn't remember curry very well, but he knew it was special to him. For some reason it made him happy. He put the curry rat in his mouth.

Tears rolled down his cheeks. He couldn't taste any of it, as usual. But more importantly, Tamama's voice echoed throughout his head.

 _I ate her._ Then Tamama had laughed. Mois had been eaten and killed by Tamama, and he probably tasted every bit of her. Had the sound of chewing her been similar to the way Kululu was chewing the meat of the rat? Had he tasted the texture of her body in great detail?

Becoming physically nauseous by the thought, Kululu spit out his food. He couldn't eat it. Not when the image he was getting was exactly what Tamama had gone through when he had eaten the pure, sparkly-eyed girl.

Revenge had been taken, though. Tamama was dead. And it had turned out that Mois and Kululu really hadn't had the connection he had believed. What their real connection was, he'd never know.

 _What now? My main goal was to destroy Tamama... But Tamama is dead now,_ Kululu remembered. He didn't have a goal.

But he could make one. There was still one unfinished goal in his soul. And he was getting very close to making a city to start out for him.

 _Invasion._ Invasion remained in his mind, in his soul. He could easily still do it. That would be his main goal.

He didn't need to know any more about himself, to get his memories back from Dororo. He didn't want them. Now that he could see he was complete. And when he focused he could see the future.

He was a ruler, a conqueror. A bio-engineered race of mechanical clockwork people were under his rule. And he had created this new world.

That was enough for him. He could be a ruler. He didn't need to know any more. He didn't need to know about Mois.

He had to let her go.

* * *

 **One Year Ago**

Angol Mois and Tamama went from store to store looking for the various invasion things on Keroro's list.

"Ughhh this is so boring! And I have to shop with you of all people!" Tamama groaned. He didn't make any comments about how rather useless things were on the list like more ramen and pocky. Actually, Tamama greatly approved of the latter.

It was clear that Keroro had sent them on a mission for groceries, not invasion-related things.

"We can make it fun! Make it into a game or something!" Mois smiled, treating Tamama like a kid. She grabbed the almost-crumbled list, since Tamama was tearing at it in a rage. "Hmmm... let's see. We could race to see who could get the next thing first? And then throw it in our basket and bags. Just like basketball!"

"I want to strangle you! Please just die." Tamama groaned. Mois hummed and seemed to not hear his piles and piles of threats as she skipped off to the next stand to pick up more things.

People hurried across the streets. Crying filled the air. The shop-keeper at the market looked frazzled. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "You should be finding shelter. Not like it's going to make any difference." He looked incredibly distressed.

Tamama was baffled. "What's going on? I mean, I understand running from that woman's stench but I suspect it's not that."

The man scurried out of his stand and pointed to a television.

"...several bombs headed for this area. The tensions between countries has finally broken and it seems this area is the fifth chosen to be bombed. It is not likely anyone will survive. The bombs range from nuclear intensity from 1 to 10..." The news reporter started crying.

Tamama was shocked. He started shivering. "Wh-what? But... But Alien Street doesn't have the defense to stop a bomb attack... We won't be able to make it back to the base in time. W-we're going to die." His legs were shaking, and he started crying in fear.

Mois, however, kept a cool head in the situation. She grabbed Tamama's hand. "No, we aren't. I won't let you die," she told him. "There's one place we can survive. I know. It was built to stand up against me."

Tamama sniffled and wondered if he should bite Mois's hand in his final moments. If he was going to die, he wanted to take her down, but he was so scared that he decided to remain hopeful.

Mois smiled at Tamama, trying to show him that she wasn't scared and could help him. She then dragged him through the crowds of screaming and crying aliens until she came upon a little hut in the back. It was being remodeled into a store.

Others had seemed to have her same idea, some smaller aliens who were hiding and waiting for their death. She helped Tamama inside the building and hid.

Smiling at him, she crouched next to him. "We'll be safe here," she promised.

Tamama glared at her. He didn't believe her.

* * *

The bombs dropped one after another, and although the shaking was pretty bad, Mois kept her word and Tamama hadn't died yet.

Eventually as the shaking continued, Mois took out her phone to start checking on it. It still had full service, being something fully connected to the universe.

"What are you doing, woman?" Tamama asked.

"If I look at the satellites from other planets, I can see the forecast of where the bombs are headed. I can make sure we really are all safe," she explained. After browsing a bit, she frowned.

"What? What? We're going to die, aren't we?" Tamama whined. "I knew you were good for nothing!"

"We aren't going to die, Tamama," she whispered quietly. "But... the Hinata house... There's one going to land directly there. They have three minutes before their doom. Even with Kululu's defenses, they won't be able to stand a full nuclear bomb," Mois told him.

"No... NO! Mr. Sergeant can't die! Not in a world where I live!" Tamama cried. He clutched Angol Mois's arm. "Do something!" he begged her.

Mois nodded - Tamama was right. She had to do something. She was the only one who could move fast enough to get to the bomb in time. And the only one with a spear to destroy it before impact.

She looked at Tamama sadly.

"Good-bye," she said to him. "I... I might not be able to come back." She didn't know if her body could stand the direct hit. So she had to talk to Tamama like she'd die.

"If you die and leave me alone, I'm taking the credit for it, woman," Tamama told her. He hated Mois, but he was scared. He didn't want to be left alone, but he also didn't want Keroro to die. "Send... Send Mr. Sergeant to help me."

"I will," she promised. She secretly knew she wouldn't ever be able to.

She left Tamama, Tamama slapping her away before she could give her a good-bye hug, and she quickly left their temporary shelter.

Soon enough, she was gone.

* * *

Flying faster than the speed of light, she got to the bomb quickly. It fell toward the location of the Hinata house, but since she was going so fast, it seemed to slow down. Flying higher, she got her spear ready as if to bat it away.

 _Let's see if I can do this._ She had to save the people below. Keroro, Kululu, that other guy, Giroro, Natsumi, Fuyuki, and whoever else was there.

She closed her eyes and hit the bomb as hard as she could. To not just explode it in the air, but to break every little molecule inside it.

Her arms shook as she took the hit, and her ears rung. Every atom, every molecule broke down from the intensity of the impact, a hit that was supposed to break a planet in one hit. The air buzzed with vibration.

And every molecule that would have hit the Hinata house flowed into her body instead. As soon as the bomb was gone, she fell.

Her eyes were still open, closing slowly as she fell down below. _I did it... I saved them..._ she thought. She felt so weak now, though. Her body was physically shutting down. She kept her hands tightly wound around her spear.

But soon enough, her eyes closed, and she was gone. She never landed. She just disappeared. That much radiation in even someone like her couldn't be stood.

* * *

Mois awoke in an empty black space. She rubbed her eyes sleepily.

 _Am I on Angol?_ she wondered. Her Angolian body and her body on Pekopon were on two separate planes. But as she tried to shift out of one body to the other, she couldn't. She couldn't seem to access either body.

"Hello." A calm voice was behind her. Mois swiftly turned around as she tried to break out of the black space all around her, hitting wildly with her Lucifer Spear. However, her spear wouldn't even cause a vibration.

Luckily, she saw a familiar face behind her. Someone she knew from her experiences on Pekopon, although she didn't know her as well as everyone else. She at least recognized her.

"Omiyo." She felt relieved when she saw the friendly ghost. "Where am I?"

"Nowhere," Omiyo told her, blankly floating around.

"What happened?" asked Mois.

"A nuclear apocalypse, so I've heard. So many died... I've seen many souls shift onto this plane to pass on to a happier one," Omiyo told her.

"So... So many died?" Mois asked. Omiyo giggled a little.

"Don't worry, I haven't seen your friends! They seem to have survived it all. No one I recognize besides you is here," said Omiyo.

Mois looked relieved. Then it started setting in what Omiyo was implying. "Omiyo..." she whispered. She tried to hit the ground again, but nothing happened. "Why can't I get back to Pekopon? To Angol? Why can't I access either of my bodies? Did... Did I die?" The horror started setting in as she considered the possibility that she was dead. She wouldn't be able to see any of her friends again.

They would be all alone. And she'd be alone without them. Would they wonder what happened to her? Would Tamama tell them where she went? Would they look for her after that?

Her lower lip started quivering as she considered all this and started crying.

"I assume so. Don't worry, though, everybody dies," Omiyo tried to comfort. "You're a ghost now. It's all right," she tried to reassure her as Mois continued crying.

"H-how... How can I speak to them again? You went back, didn't you? Even as a ghost," said Mois. "I want to go back," she blubbered. "Tell me how to interact with the plane."

Omiyo frowned. Her smile falling. "You can't," she told her. "I was booted out of that plane, too."

"What? Why?" Mois asked.

"All the spirits are leaving. The entire planet is filled with radiation. I've even seen quite a few kappa come through here. Earth... Earth is dead. Or at least dying. The spirits know there's no hope for it, and have left to move on. It won't be able to regrow without them, and it will eventually just wither and die. Or explode. I'm sure you'd like that," Omiyo smiled, trying to calm her. "But the spirits know they'd die if they stayed there. They don't think it's salvageable, so we all left."

Mois frowned. She didn't know what any of that meant. But she was sure Dororo would. She tried yet again, desperately to access her body on Pekopon, not wanting to face the reality that she was dead. She saw a brief flicker of the base - but nothing more. Like a light it was gone.

Perhaps she just had to face the fact that she was dead. Her physical body had probably seized from existence when all the radiation hit it.

Mois tried to nod among her tears. "I'm... I'm dead," she realized.

Omiyo put a hand on her shoulder. "There, there. Everyone has to face it."

* * *

The months went on in the spirit plane. Mois felt useless without the ability to use any of her Angolian powers.

Omiyo watched over her but sometimes drifted off to do her own thing. She wondered to herself why Mois was still in the world of limbo, though, unable to access a happier place.

Mois was eventually able to see at least some of Pekopon's plane. An image of the spiritualness of it. "All the forests are disappearing. Shouldn't they have already been dead from the apocalypse?"

"That's not the real forest," Omiyo explained. "It's the potential to regrow. The spirits are gone, so plants can't grow in the world. The world is dying."

"What will happen to those on it?" Mois asked, knowing that her friends had survived.

"They'll die," said Omiyo "Don't worry, they'll join you someday."

Mois frowned and nodded. She knew enough by now that the planet, without spiritual energy to keep it alive, had an internal clock. Two years was the most it would last before it withered away. No longer, though.

Everybody on it would die, including those she had given up her life to protect.

* * *

Dororo glanced down at some soft dirt and smelled it. No plant life. He knew what was happening. The spirits had left this world and plant life was now no longer growing. The planet was dying.

"The spirits are gone," he whispered to himself. How much longer did this planet have?

* * *

"You know, there's a good thing about having your body vaporized and dying in such a way," Omiyo told Mois to try to cheer her up.

"What?" Mois asked.

"You're free," she said. "Don't Angolians reincarnate? You might be the only one to break the cycle, to be free of the obligations you have to this universe. Now you can enjoy the afterlife in peace."

Mois frowned and shook her head. She couldn't get to any happier places of the afterlife.

 _Am I really dead?_ she wondered, looking down at her hand and flexing it. Like candlelight, the flickers of the other two planes were becoming more recurrent. She could almost reach toward them and touch them.

"I can't enjoy the afterlife," Mois refused. "Pekopon is dying. And I always wanted that, but my friends are down there," she told Omiyo, "It's poisoning them. Their lives... Their beings... Their essence. I don't want that. I... I want to protect them. To help them. For once, I want to bring life to Pekopon," she insisted.

Omiyo looked at her sympathetically. "There... There is a way, I suppose to get back. You will be a ghost, but at least they'll see you. You can interact with them."

Mois beamed. She could already see Keroro and Kululu in front of her. She wanted to hug both of them, to reassure them that she was all right. Although she doubted a little bit that Kululu would be that worried. He was still one of her very important friends, perhaps her most important.

"How?" Mois asked.

"You have to phase through a location that is important to you. For example, my stain in Keroro's room. Do you have a place that is important to you?" Omiyo asked.

Mois thought.

"Think long and hard. And then focus on it. I'm sure you'll be able to get back," Omiyo told her.

Mois thought harder.

* * *

She knew in her heart where her best memories on Pekopon had been made. It was the base, her work station on the tech team.

Working with Kululu had been incredibly fun and cheerful. It brought a smile to her face just thinking about it.

She closed her eyes and focused. She focused on every feature. Her chair, her desk, Kululu's desk and chair next to hers. Kululu, the screens, almost everything.

Finally she felt a shaking. She tightened her hands, and kept her eyes tightly closed. When the shaking stopped, she opened them.

She was back!

She smiled. "I'm... I'm back!" She looked down at her body and frowned. Omiyo had told her she would be a ghost, but she looked just like herself. She wasn't transparent, or floating. She was just herself in her Angolian garb.

She touched the desk. She could feel it. Ghosts weren't supposed to feel anything. Yet she could feel it.

"I'm... I'm alive?" Mois wondered. She let out a loud laugh. She then squealed and spun around, her arms waving in the air.

She was overcome by glee. "I have to tell everyone!"

She ran out throughout the base. For some reason, she couldn't find any Keronians, but Fuyuki, Natsumi, Saburo and Koyuki were there.

The first one she came across was Natsumi. "Natsumi! Look! I'm back!" she cried.

Natsumi didn't even look up. She just laid on a couch mumbling to herself. "I... I have to cheer Fuyuki up. But how can I when I am just as miserable? Got to find some sort of activity to continue... to do..."

"Natsumi?" Mois asked. She looked over at Natsumi and waved a hand in her face. Natsumi didn't even look at her. She just looked through her.

"She... She can't see me..." Mois took a step back. She ran into a toy Gundam, moving it a little bit. Natsumi didn't even look up.

She didn't care.

"I... I'm alive... But nobody can see me. They won't interact with me," Mois realized. Something had messed up when she had absorbed all that radiation. And now she was gone. Gone entirely from existence.

* * *

She left the base. Sadly, she couldn't phase through doors, so she had to sneak out and lock the base door when everyone was asleep.

 _I've got to find the Keronians. I read a little bit of Natsumi's journal and it said they left looking for Tamama and me._ Luckily, she knew where they had been, so she headed off to where she had left Tamama.

Tamama was no longer where she had left him, though. And she had to search a little harder for him.

When she found him by a water tower in a small shack with Keroro, she was horrified. Both of their bodies had been mutated almost beyond recognition and they were entwined and kissing.

"Uncle? Tamama?" she asked, trying to get their attention. But just like Natsumi, they didn't see her. They just kissed.

"I love you, Tamama," Keroro told Tamama, caressing his face. "Even though I can't see you, I can feel you wonderfully. It doesn't matter what happened before you, I don't even want to remember!"

"That's a good attitude to have," Tamama murmured. "I'm yours. And you are all mine."

Mois stepped back, horrified.

What was happening?

* * *

She managed to figure out a little bit from what she saw of Tamama and Keroro. The radiation had changed their bodies and mutated them. It enhanced one of their senses and subdued the other four because of their Keronian biology.

It also seemed to mess with their minds and memories. They never talked about her. After a day, Mois was ready to leave, feeling like she was peeping on their relationship.

 _I've got to find Kululu. If it's Kululu... He'll be able to figure out some way to communicate with me. He's a genius, and more importantly he's my friend. He... He wouldn't forget about me._ Mois left to find him.

She had to find him. Together they'd be able to deal with this.

* * *

He was mutated just like the rest. But he was much weaker. Unlike Keroro and Tamama, none of his senses had enhanced.

Despite his hideous new appearance, Mois still threw herself on him in a hug. Thank goodness he wasn't making out with someone like Keroro and Tamama.

He didn't move. She could touch him, but he clearly didn't feel her. Quickly, she released him and he didn't act like anything strange had happened.

"Kululu! I'm so glad to see you!" she told him, knowing full well he couldn't hear her. He didn't answer, but she was still happy to be by his side.

* * *

She stayed with Kululu for a while. He was much different than Keroro and Tamama. She learned that he had enhanced his hearing manually with his headphones, and that because of his weakness, he tended to talk a little bit to himself.

He was lonely. And her heart went out to him.

It helped her, though, when he talked to himself. She liked to pretend they were having a conversation, despite the fact that he didn't know she was there. And it helped her catch up with what had happened.

Apparently, each of the Keronians had mutated into one of the five senses, except Kululu. He had gotten nothing. They remembered very little, but they did each have goals, to invade and find lots and lots of fresh water.

Kululu sometimes had problems with this because he was a big weakling. He got his butt kicked by the other four Keronians constantly. Mois had to stay by his side to protect him and make sure nothing too horrible happened, despite him not questioning how bandages would find their way on his body. He couldn't feel them.

Kululu didn't seem to have any of his memories at all, except a huge hatred for Tamama.

"All right... so my list for the day is find water as a number two priority, and find Tamama as a number one priority. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed. Tamama was always his number one priority. "I have to kill him."

"But why, Kululu? Why?" Mois asked.

"He'll pay for eating her. Whoever she is." Kululu's hands shook in anger. Mois's brow furrowed in thought. Who had Tamama eaten?

She put her hand on Kululu's hand to calm him. They had been living together for just under a month, and although he hadn't noticed her, she wanted to make sure he was safe before searching out a way to contact everyone. He needed to be safe mentally and physically.

"I'll avenge you... The weird girl with sparkly eyes... And... And I'll find out who you are, too. For us." Kululu smiled a bit as he talked about Mois.

Mois blushed, but her blush faded as she realized what Kululu was talking about. He had forgotten about her - well, most things about her, except that she was important to him and sparkly. And also Tamama had taken credit for her death.

She frowned. So that was why Kululu wanted to kill Tamama.

"I'm not dead, though!" she told Kululu. As always, Kululu didn't hear.

* * *

She was beginning to suspect she had mutated, too, just like the rest of them. She had a lot of weaknesses, like not being able to interact with anyone, but she was starting to pick up a few of her skills too, and new abilities she had gathered.

It was like she was a spirit... Or more of a sense like them. Maybe the amount of radiation she had taken it had mutated her, too. Perhaps it had made her the sixth sense?

She didn't sleep that night by Kululu's side. Instead she watched him to make sure he was all right. And his dreams were projected to her - she could easily see them in bulk.

He dreamed about her. "The sparkly eyed girl of his dreams" was what he called her. Some of their memories together nostalgic were shown to her. The ones that meant something to him. Just them working together, spending time together, joking about their platoon mates. Her looking at him, him looking at her. All sorts of fluffy things that she hadn't thought about before.

Some of his fantasies slipped in there too. Them going on the sweetest and most innocent dates. Kululu never knew her name in his dreams. He just referred to her as his girlfriend.

Mois liked watching them. They were filled with Kululu's feelings for her. They were all so sweet.

 _He... He loves me... Doesn't he?_ she wondered to herself. Or was it just a sort of mutated love, like Keroro had for Tamama? She wasn't sure. Did Keroro actually love Tamama? It had looked sweet to her, but also twisted.

She hadn't ever thought about the fact that Kululu might be in love with her. It had never occurred to her. Never graced her mind. She had always been too busy thinking about Keroro.

But now, when it was just her and Kululu, she could think about it. And it was clear that at least now, the thought of her plagued his mind constantly. It might have been because he had forgotten about her and was curious or it might have been because he actually loved her. She didn't know.

All she knew was when he thought about her, and talked about her and their life together, were the only times Kululu looked genuinely happy. That happiness usually shifted to despair though that she was now gone from his life.

It was sweet, she thought, how much he cared for her. She was truly touched. She had thought a lot about him in their separation, too, admittedly.

"I... I like you too, you know. You're pretty cute and close to me. You've always been a beacon of hope and help to me. Supported me in everything I've done, including kill all your friends as you count down how many hits it takes me to end the planet." It was an embarrassing subject to admit, but she knew Kululu couldn't hear her, anyway. She just wanted to tell him, even if he couldn't hear. "I love you, Kululu." She put a strand of hair behind her ear as she covered her face, embarrassed.

He didn't hear, though. He never heard.

 _Maybe... Maybe I can help him get his memories back of me!_ she decided. She had accepted the fact that he couldn't see her or realize she was there. But her hand never went through him. She could touch him.

She had seen enough movies to know where this was going. A kiss of true love always healed someone. If she kissed him, she was positive that he would remember her, maybe even see her.

He had to... Right?

She leaned forward, carefully and shyly as Kululu tried to work on a project. Intelligence was the only thing he had, but since he couldn't see, it was difficult for him to work. Sometimes she helped him out by slipping parts into his hands, and he just assumed he had done it himself.

Slowly, she placed her lips on Kululu's, kissing him softly and sweetly. Kululu froze up. He didn't continue working, but his hands also didn't drop what he was doing to place them on Mois.

Mois continued kissing him. Eventually, she put her hand on his back to continue the kiss. He barely moved his lips, as if to open them, to ask if someone was there. He could almost just barely feel something pressed up against him.

She took this as an invitation, and continued kissing him, a bit more passionately just to get it in his head that she was kissing him. She sucked on his lips, slipping her tongue into his mouth.

A light moan escaped his lips, as if at least his body sub-consciously realized he was being kissed. Mois continued what she was doing, until she realized that Kululu was out of breath, and she took her lips off of his.

Her face was heated, and red. She had tried her best to implement a kiss of true love, just like she had heard about. She had put all her feelings in it.

Kululu's face wasn't heated, but he did have a small smile on his face, as if he was satisfied. "Strange. I feel a lot more energized... The safe feeling has disappeared, though. But what matters is all the energy I have!" Kululu started working faster, encouraged by this energy.

Mois frowned. _He didn't remember anything about us did he? He... He just mooched off of my spiritual energy!_ she realized.

She felt terrible that her unrealistic standards of romance hadn't helped anything. Kissing hadn't suddenly granted him his memories back.

She slumped over, distressed. Perhaps nothing would change. Nothing would ever change.

Kululu would always not remember her. And she would never be able to interact with him again.

* * *

It took eight more months for him to figure out that his vision was so bad because he was wearing glasses. It was a stupid mistake, but she felt happy as Kululu laughed when he discovered this.

"Can... Can you see me now?" She had stuck by him the whole time, unable to leave, trying to protect him as Keroro and Tamama completely trashed him every time he fought with them.

She waited for Kululu to say something, but he could see everything except her. She frowned.

"At... At least you're safe now. Not weak any longer. I suppose I can go look for help now. Someone who can interact with me. I won't be gone long, Kululu. Not like you'd notice it, anyway," she told him. She smiled and waved.

* * *

She didn't find anyone. But the next time she saw him, he was laughing to himself on a cliff.

"I did it! I killed Tamama!" he said. "But... But... She wasn't anything to me... I was wrong."

Angol Mois's eyes widened. She had left for one second, and Kululu killed Tamama? _Oh no..._ She realized. Kululu just laughed and laughed as he went off to his castle that he was making.

He could see the future, but he had overlooked how incredibly evil he had become. She watched him go, horrified as he just laughed. He had lost it, lost it completely while she was gone.

"I need to get him help. I need to do something." She gritted her teeth. She needed to make sure he hadn't killed any of his other platoon mates.

She needed to find Dororo and Giroro and make sure they weren't dead.

She turned away from him and left, hoping she was making the right decision.

 _Good-bye, Kululu. Hopefully I'll... I'll be back soon,_ she thought to herself.

* * *

 **Well, congratulations to one of my reader, Major Monty the Straw Vulcan, for guessing everything about Mois. Congratulations!**

 **Please review.**

 **I got to work on my kurumois. This was supposed to be the kurumois chapter, but I feel like it wasn't nearly as strong as some of my other stuff? Specifically I got to work on my kurumois from Mois's side is what I mean.**


	19. Danger

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

* * *

A third of the city was recreated by Kululu. He was going to replace this desolate wasteland with a mechanical world.

"You will inhabit it," he ordered his clockwork soldiers. To rule you needed citizens to rule. Since most of Pekopon's population was dead, Kululu had decided to make a population and soldiers all in one.

It wasn't too hard. Figuring out to make one with artificial intelligence and than mass-produce them with varying bodies was incredibly easy, actually.

And now he had an army. He grinned to himself, laughing loudly.

"Who is your leader?" he asked his army.

"Kululu," they all chanted in their mechanical voices. "Kululu is our leader."

"Ku, ku, ku." Kululu was pleased. Now all he needed was to use the soldiers to destroy the rest of the Pekoponians scurrying around, along with Dororo, and the planet would be his.

 _I think I'll keep Giroro alive for a while, though. It would be nice to rub my completed invaded planet in his face._ That would be a nice feeling. Rubbing salt in Giroro's wounds sounded incredibly appealing.

* * *

Natsumi was safe in Momoka's fortress. It was lavish and luxurious and there was no way to get bored in it.

But still, she was antsy. "What's wrong?" Fuyuki asked, seeing her searching for a way out.

Natsumi glanced to the side if anyone was there, but seeing that it was only her and her brother, she decided to talk to him.

"I want to go out," she told him.

"That might not be a good idea. Especially with Giroro and Kululu still out there, it might be dangerous," Fuyuki pointed out. Natsumi frowned.

"I know... But... I want to find Mom," she explained. She knew her mother was probably dead, but seeing Momoka so happy with her mother just reminded her that her mother was still out there, probably dead, but she needed to find the body anyway. She needed closure.

"Natsumi... Momoka was alive. That's a miracle... But Mom... Mom probably isn't," Fuyuki reminded her gently.

"I know. I just need closure. So many of our friends have become mutants. The stupid frog died. Dororo is still missing. I just... I want to know for sure this one thing," she begged him. "Let me go out."

Fuyuki stared at her for a good while. "Okay. But I'm coming with you. We don't need to drag the others into this. This is something we need to find out."

Natsumi smiled at his offer to help her. "Okay."

* * *

They went outside. The sun shined in Natsumi's face as she breathed the dusty and not quite fresh air. She still wasn't sure if there were any long-term effects of being out here that she should be worried about. Most likely it had decreased her lifespan by ten years or something like that.

"Come on." She helped Fuyuki walk, letting him lean on her. He had just had surgery on his foot, and he still wasn't supposed to put full support on it.

They walked through the barren wasteland, looking for their mother. They called for her name, checked the corpses, but they could find no such memories of Aki.

* * *

They found Aki's old work place. It was in a dire state. Natsumi plugged her nose, grimacing as she looked around.

"Check the corpses. Maybe there's a name tag on one of them..." She wanted to find her mother's motorcycle, too. If she found that, she knew her mother was there.

Looking down at the various corpses, Natsumi gritted her teeth and began fiddling with whatever fabrics would fall off of it.

She saw a finger twitch of the ashy skeleton-like thing. Its face was in a constant state of terror.

She had seen a few fingers twitch or hands in her time outside. She assumed it was just the wind moving the light figure.

Suddenly, the hand shot forward and wrapped around her neck. She screamed, letting out a gurgle as it squeezed.

"SIS!" Fuyuki yelled, seeing the corpse moving. He painstakingly dragged out a plywood plank. Eventually, he mustered the strength to lift it up and hit the corpse.

Natsumi gasped for air.

The corpse didn't make a sound, just a gurgling as it fell to pieces. Natsumi rubbed her neck.

"Are... Are they alive?" she asked.

"Is it like a zombie?" Fuyuki's eyes glowed at the premise.

"Fuyuki... stop geeking out about this. It's serious!" she argued.

Fuyuki frowned. "Sorry."

"I... I don't think it was a zombie, exactly. It felt more like the texture of one of those rats - you know - filled with radiation. Maybe the corpse died, but the insides kind of mutated into a radiation monster." Natsumi tried to be smart about the circumstances.

"What did it want, then? Brains?" Fuyuki was still going with his zombie theory.

"I don't know." She sighed, unaware that the rest of them, the corpses they had checked, were silently getting up. They didn't have eyes, they only heard something in their territory.

Hands wound around Fuyuki and Natsumi as they were pulled into the pile of moving corpses. One of the jaws fell off of the corpses.

Natsumi and Fuyuki tried to struggle free, but the arms were cold and lifeless. They gripped on rigidely.

And they pulled Natsumi and Fuyuki into their pile, to join them in death. To rub against their non-mutated bodies.  
"HELP!" Natsumi screamed as she struggled. She knew nobody would hear, though. They hadn't told anyone they were leaving.

Tears rolled down Natsumi's face as a head rubbed against her. Fuyuki was gasping for air as he was pulled into the monstrous pile of corpses.

They were going to die. Just like their mother had.

* * *

The happy feeling hadn't faded, although the adrenaline of his and Natsumi's fight had.

She had beaten him, but for some reason he was happy, and more than a little proud.

This Natsumi girl was clearly something important to him. But what? Who was she? She was a Pekoponian, the enemy, so she couldn't be a comrade. A partner.

He tried to think, listen to the sound of her voice in her head. He could see the image of what she looked like, despite having no eyes. She was in his memories, her smile, her laughter, her punches... Her anger.

And... her naked body?

That was worrisome. Giroro frowned.

 _Natsumi, who are you to me?_ he wondered. He pressed his hand up against his heart. He could hear the accelerated beating, as it was no longer steady. It was distressed by this girl.

The girl who had beaten him. The one he had almost killed. The one he was impressed with.

Had... Had she been his lover in the past? To him, there were only two important things, water and invasion. Not even friendship was important, and he knew he had a past friendship with Dororo.

But love... Love wasn't a warrior's way. It was different. But most likely, he and this Natsumi girl had been lovers.

 _What do I do? Do I continue on with my goals? Or... Or do I go back to her? I'm different now. But only by her side was I happy... Satisfied. I'm no longer the person she knows, though,_ Giroro thought to himself. "What do I do? Do... Do I seek out Natsumi? Should I seek her out? Dororo warned me against it, but... I have to be near her. I have to learn more. I want to be by her again."

"Go to her. Go to Natsumi." Giroro heard a very light, feminine voice. He whirled his head around, looking around. Who had spoken? His echo-location couldn't sense a presence anywhere. Had the voice been in his head? Was it just a projection of his inner will?

"Why? Why should I go to Natsumi?" Giroro asked, begging the voice for answers.

He heard the sound of a gulp, but still no movement there. "Because she's in trouble. She'll die without you. The choice is yours, if you do what the old Giroro would do. Are you the soldier you always were, or just a mindless invader?" asked the voice.

Giroro's socketless eyes widened at the question. Where did his heart lie? And what did the voice mean that Natsumi was in trouble?

 _Natsumi..._ His feelings knew her. His gut instincts knew her, and that was what mattered. And every fiber of his body was telling him to save her.

That he could not let anything harm her.

A whirlwind of images flooded his mind of Natsumi in trouble and him helping her out, and embarrassingly saying it was no big deal.

But the fear he had felt in that moment that she might have been in trouble resonated with him.

He focused and heard a gasp for air tear from her, if he focused and singled her out.

He rushed off. Invasion didn't matter. Not as much as Natsumi did at least. He wasn't a mindless invader, he had to return to who he was.

So he tried to locate her.

* * *

Angol Mois smiled as she saw Giroro rush off.

"He... He heard me... Didn't he?" she asked herself. She had found him after she had noticed Natsumi was in trouble, knowing he'd be the one to help her. She had tried to yell at him for help, but he didn't hear.

Finally, when she clearly thought her words, he had finally picked up on them. It was like telepathy or something like that. It was hard, and she was very bad at it, but he had picked up on it like a miracle.

Was it because of her sixth sense or his sense of hearing? Or was it a combination of both?

 _Most likely both._ Maybe, when Natsumi was safe, she could experiment with it. Maybe Giroro was her link to the world. To communicate with it.

She felt hope.

* * *

 _Maybe it WAS safer to stay locked away..._ Natsumi thought. Ahe was turning purple from loss of oxygen. She was going to die.

Suddenly a small pocket of air opened, and she heard bullets whizz through the air.

She gasped for air, but didn't celebrate for very long. Instead, she dove her hands into the pile and attempted to fish out Fuyuki. Pulling him by the air, she got his nose and mouth out, and he gasped for air.

Giroro kept on shooting the pile, knowing which parts of it were the people and which were the mutated corpses. Soon enough, Fuyuki and Natsumi were gasping in a pile of ashes.

"Mutated corpses. They're always trouble," Giroro hissed. Natsumi turned to him, surprised to see him as her savior.

"G-Giroro? Wh-Why are you here?" she asked. _Did he want to be the one to kill me?_ she wondered.

Giroro thought for a moment. His eyelids closed, and Natsumi breathed a sigh of relief, to not see the expressionless darkness that were his new eyes.

"Because although I don't want it to be, I'm a fighter and a lover," he told her simply, sighing. "My... My memories of you are jumbled... B-but... It's clear you're there. You're always there. You're important to me. And my primary instinct is always your safety," Giroro stuttered. "Actually, ignore that lover comment," he blushed. He realized he didn't actually know if him and Natsumi were lovers.

Natsumi giggled, first in relief, and then her giggling grew louder into actual laughter as she realized Giroro was coming back to her. He was acting like his normal self. "But we are lovers, Giroro! You are a fighter and my lover!"

Giroro blushed a darker red. Fuyuki scratched his head. He hadn't heard about this!

Giroro suddenly hugged Natsumi. Natsumi hugged him back tightly, and he felt safe. He felt like himself again. He felt so at peace, reuniting with her. "I'm sorry for not coming back," he whispered. His Natsumi memories at least were now fully coming back. He could remember leaving her, promising to come back, and their life specifically together.

"It's all right. All that matters is you're alive now," she told him, small tears coming out of her eyes in relief. "Just... let's not go where the other can't follow anymore, okay?" she suggested.

Giroro nodded, agreeing with her.

He felt so loved, so at peace. He put his coarse hands on her face and moved forward to kiss her, not being able to feel the sensation, but knowing he wanted to kiss her.

He heard her physical recoil and flinch.

His heart broke.

"Natsumi?" he asked in distress as she pulled away. "I-is something wrong?" His memories were now becoming less and less a blur. It was clear, the bond they shared. So why didn't Natsumi want to kiss him?

"N-no..." She shook her head, lying about the fact that she couldn't stomach his newly mutated physical appearance. "I'm sorry."

Giroro could hear the tone in her voice. She was disgusted by him. Repulsed. She didn't want to be with him anymore.

He smiled softly, trying to hide the hurt. "I-it's all right..."

They had been separated for nine months. The restart of their relationship was bound to be a little rocky. Natsumi and Giroro just hadn't expected the fact that most likely the physical repulsion Natsumi was feeling might end their relationship and make it unable to be continued.

Giroro dropped his hands from her. "We better get the two of you back to safety. Where are you taking shelter?" he asked gruffly.

They told him, hoping to brush off the awkward disgust Natsumi was feeling.

* * *

Dororo smelled Giroro's and Natsumi's scents intermingling. Giroro must have joined up with them, despite his warnings. Had Giroro remembered his love for the girl? If so, there was very little Dororo could do to separate them.

 _Maybe this is for the best. I mean, Giroro's going to be closest to Natsumi. I... I'll be able to figure out how bad being near them will be, and if Giroro will mutate Natsumi drastically just by his presence,_ Dororo thought. He hated using Natsumi as a test subject. He felt dirty and terrible. It was something like Kululu would do.

But he had his own selfish desires, too. He wasn't absolutely selfless. He wanted to know if there was even a small chance he could see Koyuki. He missed her. He wanted to talk to her.

 _I'm sorry, Natsumi._ He had been weak.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	20. In Sickness and In Health

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **6 more chapters left. 5 and the epilogue. Yay!**

* * *

"Meow!" Miss Furbottom scratched at the door of an underground bomb shelter. The door to the base had been left open for her, and she mostly had just been looking around, looking for her owner.

What she had found wasn't her owner, but it carried a similar scent.

The door opened from the scratching. Not hiding out in the bomb shelter constantly, but sneaking out sometimes in the middle of the night, Aki peered out her door to see a cat.

She screamed and ran out, panicking. Screw mutated monsters. Animals were much scarier!

Miss Furbottom meowed in annoyance. She knew this human. Maybe she could lead her to the rest of them. But if she kept running wildly, there would be no hope.

Eventually she decided to just herd her, like cattle.

* * *

Natsumi, Fuyuki and Giroro, tiredly headed to the Nishizawa fortress. They heard a loud screaming noise in the distance.

Narrowing her eyes, Natsumi let her eyes adjust to the figure that was approaching. Soon enough, Aki was running toward them, running from what looked like had frightened the living daylights out of her.

"M-mom...?" Natsumi's jaw widened. Aki stopped running as she saw her two children.

"Fuyuki? Natsumi? What are you doing out here?" She stopped for a moment, tears forming in her eyes as she felt a sense of relief at seeing her children. Fuyuki ran into her arms. Natsumi left Giroro's side to run into her arms, as well.

The three hugged and cried, happy to see each other.

Miss Furbottom proudly sauntered by and leaped into Giroro's arms. He might have been mutated, but he was still her owner. She didn't like it much that she had found him by Natsumi, but at least she had been reunited with him, too.

"M-miss... Miss Furbottom?" Giroro asked, hearing her soft mews. He pet her head, feeling stress relieved from his body by the rhythmic motions of petting her. Memories formed throughout his life just by touching her.

His cat, and losing stress from being with her, was granting him his memories back. He smiled. "You're a wonderful cat. I wish I had a toy for you to play with," he laughed.

"H-how are you alive, Mom?" Natsumi asked, touching her Mom's face as if she couldn't be alive. She knew they had survived from the alien technology, but how had her mother survived?

"I booked it as soon as people started panicking. Found a bomb shelter, stayed in there for maybe 6 months, started sneaking out during midnight when the sun was the least intense to get supplies and then hide out again back there. Not even an apocalypse can take out your Mom!" Aki proudly stated to her children, pumping her fist. "You just have to have common sense and the mental and physical strength to survive. I knew others probably were alive, too. And I thought of you two everyday. I'm so glad you're safe." She hugged them.

Natsumi squeezed her Mom tightly. "I can't believe it," she told her mother in awe.

"Not even bombs can take you down if you're strong enough," Aki teased.

"What were you screaming about, though?" Fuyuki asked.

Aki, still shivering, pointed to the cat in Giroro's arms.

Natsumi and Fuyuki just looked at each other. Even a super Mom had to have a weakness.

* * *

Finally, all together they made it to the Nishizawa fortress. Koyuki, Saburo, and Momoka were overjoyed to see them.

"Oh yeah. We forgot to take Miss Furbottom," Saburo recalled when seeing her. "My bad."

"So... Giroro's okay now?" Koyuki asked, confused.

"My memories coming back, little by little. All I know is that I'm not going to attack you guys again. I... I'm protecting Natsumi," Giroro told them. "Cats are the best. Healers of memory," he smiled. "Aren't you, you great thing?" He told Miss Furbottom, kissing her. At least _she_ wasn't disgusted by his new appearance. She still knew it was Giroro deep down.

"I'm so glad you found your mother, Fuyuki!" Momoka smiled. "Dad will want to do some tests on her, though, to make sure she's not leaking radiation. Same with Giroro, before they can officially join us."

Giroro and Aki both nodded, consenting to the tests.

* * *

As doctors tested Giroro, Aki, and the cat, Giroro sighed. He was still bummed out about Natsumi flinching and recoiling from his touch.

Natsumi had insisted to be in the room outside his tests, sometimes between blood draws and things she walked into the room to let him hear that she was still there.

Giroro knew what he had to do. Natsumi was a good friend, a good partner, but she clearly wasn't into him any longer. He could hear her head trying to tilt away from him to not look at him.

"I'm sorry, Natsumi. About what I told you about waiting for me to return before starting something with Saburo. You should be free to be with him," Giroro told her.

"It's fine," Natsumi told him curtly. Giroro's ears picked up her lack of emotion. He wanted to touch her hand, to support her, but he couldn't.

"We should take a break," he finally told her. "It's been a long time since we've seen each other, and... And we have a lot of time to make up for. It might be best to explore other options instead of healing a partly broken relationship." It was the hardest thing Giroro had ever had to say. He knew he had come back just for Natsumi, but she didn't owe him anything. And just being with her was much better than being mindless and just a mutated invader.

"What? But... But..." Natsumi stuttered.

"I don't want you to misinterpret. I love you," Giroro assured her. The worry in her voice faded. "But... if my love cannot be returned, I won't mind. Being partners with you is much better than being your enemy. And I'll be happy just the little bit of time together in my memories that we had." Giroro told her soothingly.

"What do you mean, can't be returned?" Natsumi asked, her voice shaking. She made no movement to get closer to him and his body, though.

"You don't have to force yourself. I can sense your physical repulsion at me. I know this new appearance is not ideal," he told her sadly. "I'm sorry."

Natsumi sighed, rubbing her head. She knew she shouldn't lie to him. "I... I still love you. Very much so, Giroro. My feelings of love are still incredibly strong. It broke my heart when you were gone and I'm so happy you're back now."

Giroro knew Natsumi was telling the truth, but there was more. He smiled at just that knowledge that she loved him.

"But... you're right that your physical appearance isn't... Well... It's terrifying, Giroro. I... I can't feel attracted to you, just your eyeless face is sending shivers up my spine," she confessed. "So... you're right that I might be experiencing a little repulsion, which isn't your fault... But..." She bit her lip, feeling horrible.

Giroro smiled. Natsumi was a honest soldier. He was glad she had the courage to tell him all this. "I'll remain your friend," he promised. "But we should separate from the romantic side of our relationship until you feel more comfortable. I don't want a one-sided relationship. You are free to pursue other options while we're on a break," he said. It hurt to do this, but he knew it was the right thing to do.

"But... But..." He could hear Natsumi shaking. "I'm scared," she confessed. "I don't want to leave you again... The last time you left you didn't return for nine months. You tried to kill me, you were so different. I don't want to separate... I don't. Please don't do this, Giroro," she begged.

Aki was listening to her daughter and Giroro's relationship troubles, trying not to butt in. She knew Giroro had a certain fondness for her daughter, but she didn't know it had been mutual during the time she was gone.

"Separation doesn't weaken love, Natsumi," Aki told her soothingly. "And neither does having a non-physical relationship with someone."

Natsumi looked up at her Mom, waiting for advice. She wanted her relationship with Giroro to be healthy, no longer rocky. But she didn't know how to do that.

"Haru and I... Your father. Were apart a lot, you know. He liked to travel. But our love for each other didn't grow weaker. In fact, we even sorted things out to have a more open relationship while the other was gone, as long as our romantic feelings stayed true to just each other. It was fine if we didn't have the attraction to each other any longer, as long as we had commitment," Aki told her.

Natsumi honestly didn't want to hear this about her Dad and Mom, but it helped hearing it, anyway. "So... separating from a romantic relationship from Giroro won't harm us in the long run?" she asked. Aki nodded.

"Then... I'll do it," she agreed. Giroro smiled.

"Good," he nodded. Natsumi seemed distressed, but she eventually left Giroro alone to continue his tests.

* * *

"So... you and Natsumi broke up because of your new appearance?" The news got to Fuyuki eventually. News spread quickly.

Giroro gritted his teeth. He didn't really want to talk to anyone about this.

"I think your new appearance is cool," Fuyuki reassured. "But... is there any chance to get back to normal? I mean... I'm sure your eyes won't be able to grow back, but get your skin back to the way it was?" he asked, wanting to know for Natsumi.

Giroro shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "Haven't looked into it. Haven't wanted to, till now. The one who might know the most about it is Kululu, but I can't just go up to him and ask about it. He and I aren't on the best terms."

Fuyuki sadly nodded. Perhaps there was no hope for his alien nieces and nephews, then. He mourned the loss of them.

* * *

Dororo was overcome with guilt with what he had done. Sending Giroro off to be with Natsumi had been a mistake. He would definitely mutate her.

It shouldn't have been about testing things. It should have been about other people's safety.

But he probably couldn't separate Giroro from them. He wouldn't let himself be separated.

Maybe... Maybe if there was a way to make Giroro leak less radiation... Maybe that would help. Dororo put his knowledge and intuition to good use.

 _Our mutations have mostly stabilized, but we still leak radiation. More so than the environment, which is just dead. However... I have come upon no Pekoponians that leak radiation._ Pekoponians had come from this planet, and shared a closer bond with it.

Perhaps they were more immune to the environment? Although they had died from the initial bombings, perhaps they would stabilize more if somehow they were Pekoponian.

Dororo tried to remember Giroro's smell. Did it carry a Keronian signature, despite being mutated? The answer was yes.

 _If he's Pekoponian, he might leak less radiation._ Dororo headed to the old Hinata house and tried to sniff out a certain gun. He knew only one device that could turn Keronians, or even animals, into Pekoponians.

Finally, in the ashes of Giroro's old tent, he found the All Things Are Livinggun. Upon examination, it had a month's worth of juice.

He bit his lip. A part of him wanted it for himself. He wanted the chance to be able to see Koyuki, if this truthfully would help them not leak radiation. But he knew Giroro loved Natsumi so much that he would pose a risk for her if he didn't have it.

Dororo sighed, and began sniffing Giroro out.

* * *

He broke the ground and tore through the concrete of Giroro's floor under his bed of his new room.

"Dororo?" Giroro heard, looking around when he heard Dororo's breathing. Dororo tossed him the raygun.

"Try it," Dororo told him. "I want to see if you still smell like radiation. If so, you could pose a threat to the Pekoponians."

Giroro nodded and shot himself, knowing the gun all too well. Soon enough, he was a blond Pekoponian man, naked and on the ground. He still had his large rabbit-like ears on the top of his head and the slits at the back of his knees, but they could easily be covered.

Dororo sniffed. "You're not mutating anymore. As I suspected... Pekoponians are more resistant to mutation. Most likely, they just die from radiation. Since you're already mutated, though, you're not at risk. And you shouldn't be leaking radiation now," said Dororo.

"Th-thank you... I don't know what to say." Giroro was grateful.

"Nothing. Don't tell anyone I was here," Dororo requested.

Giroro nodded. Dororo liked his secrecy.

On second thought, Dororo spoke up. "Kiss Natsumi like you want to. This way you won't kill her now, my friend."

"Why give this chance to me, though? Don't you want to see Koyuki?" Giroro asked.

"Koyuki and I never had that sort of relationship, unlike you and Natsumi did," Dororo reminded him. Giroro nodded.

He hoped Natsumi would like this new appearance more.

* * *

After getting clothes and asking for two glass eyes for his face, he went to see Natsumi.

"G-Giroro?" She recognized the rabbit ears. But she wasn't sure why he was a blond Pekoponian man.

He handed her the All Things Are Living gun. "I found this," he lied. "It can turn me Pekoponian. Apparently that will put you at less of a risk from getting hurt from my radiation."

"Really?" Natsumi asked.

A few doctors came up, to confirm if this was true or not. Earlier, they had noticed that he was still leaking radiation and hadn't wanted to interact with him, for risk of their health. They took a blood sample and tested it.

"He's right. Being in a human form is more healthier for us, and actually a lot more for him. He no longer requires as much water, actually." They agreed with Giroro's conclusion. Giroro grinned.

"The gun has only a month of juice, but if it's a month I can spend safely with you, I'm happy," he spoke.

"You don't have to do this. I don't love you less for your mutations," Natsumi insisted. Giroro nodded.

"But do you like this appearance more? I don't hear you flinching," he pointed out as he grabbed her hand. His skin was no longer as coarse, and was more humanoid.

Natsumi smiled a little bit. "I... I do," she admitted. "Your rabbit ears are kind of cute too."

"Good." Giroro smiled. "I want to be able to kiss you... And not have you flinch."

Natsumi smiled. "I think that can be arranged at the moment." She leaned forward and kissed him, able to stomach his appearance much better. He couldn't feel her at all, but he loved just the emotional feeling of being with her. Natsumi smiled against the kiss, pulling away after a minute, her mood much happier after being closer with Giroro.

The doctors felt awkward about watching them and left quickly.

"It's been nine months, Giroro. Do... Do you want to maybe rekindle our relationship? Make love again?" Natsumi whispered to him.

"Um... I can't feel anything," Giroro admitted sadly. Natsumi pulled away, disappointed. "But I'd love to just for the emotional feeling of being with you... Please, let's do that."

Natsumi nodded. She just wanted to be in Giroro's arms in the moment.

She pulled him into her room, and although Giroro couldn't feel anything at all, he could still hear a lot, and just the emotional feeling of being with her made him feel a whole lot better.

Natsumi had a pretty fun time.

And soon enough, they were just in each others arms, cuddling, mutually deciding to end their separation.

* * *

 **So originally there was going to be a smut scene at the end of the chapter. But I was lazy and I just made it a few lines. I am sorry. If you are an intense Gironatsu shipper and are desperate for Gironatsu smut and review asking for it, I might go back and edit the chapter to include a smut scene.**

 **But sadly I am too lazy at the moment.**

 **Please review!**


	21. Duped

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

 **Here you go. Next chapter.**

* * *

Momoka sat in a chair at a table with her father and mother and other scientists and important leaders that they had saved. It was another boring political meeting, like usual.

"We have continued to try to regrow plant life... But it seems everything we can do has failed," Momoka's father told the group. "No matter how hard we try, nothing will grow."

Momoka felt shocked. She had thought they'd be able to regrow the plants eventually. There was chatter among the crowd.

Nobody knew what to do.

 _There has to be someone who's able to regrow the plants._ She knew the population was otherwise doomed. Her mind buzzed through all the possibilities of who could help.

Eventually, it finally stopped on one Keronian who had always had a green thumb - Dororo. But from what she had heard from Fuyuki, they hadn't heard a word from him.

 _But... someone did warn me of the danger Fuyuki was in. Someone sneaked into our fortress and warned me... Dororo knows Fuyuki and me. And he's kind._ There was a chance it could have been Dororo.

And she needed him.

After the meeting, she met with her father alone. "I think I know someone who can help regrow the plants," she offered. "But I will need to locate him."

"Be safe," her father told her. "I have faith in you. You're a Nishizawa, after all," he grinned. Momoka hugged him.

She then went off to try to figure out how to find him.

* * *

She went to Koyuki first, knowing that Koyuki was the closest to Dororo. She'd most likely know where he was.

"Do you know where Dororo is?" Momoka asked.

"No. I don't even know he's alive," Koyuki admitted sadly. She fiddled with a geode in her hand.

"Where did you get that?" Momoka asked her.

Koyuki smiled. "Oh! I just found it in my room! There was a letter that said that someone left it for me and that my insides were just as beautiful as a geode. Sweet, huh?" she smiled.

Momoka frowned. She suspected who had given that geode if Dororo could bypass her security. "Koyuki..." she said kindly, "would you go check on something for me in the kitchen?"

Koyuki nodded. "I'd love to!" She agreed and bounded off. Momoka smiled, now that Koyuki was gone, she hoped Dororo would come out.

He didn't. So she begin searching the room for how he had entered it. Eventually, when she managed to push a bed out of the way, she found his hole.

"Gotcha!" she smiled. Grabbing a shovel from a place in the wall, she headed off into the tunnel he had most likely used.

* * *

She had heard a bit about the Keronians' mutations. And she had seen Tamama, Keroro and Giroro's for herself, but she still had to wonder what Dororo looked like.

The tunnel eventually came out into a cave that had many tunnel entrances.

It was dark, really dark, but Momoka could see a bright light that was the entrance to the cave and the sun. She headed toward it and saw Dororo basking in the light, perched on all fours.

His face was contorted in pain at the sunlight, but he still seemed to be making the effort to enjoy it.

He bolted up when he smelled her.

"Dororo," she spoke calmly.

"Get away from me!" Dororo hurried into the darkness of the cave. "Don't be near me... Don't even look at me!" he begged. Momoka let him retreat into the darkness, hiding his hideous appearance.

"I knew you were alive," she smiled.

"Who told you? Giroro?"

"No, I found you on my own. Through the gifts you've been leaving for Koyuki," she said. Dororo thought for a moment, and finally nodded, believing her.

"I'm not joining you in your fortress. I can't come back with you. Not when I'm like this," he said, his voice pained.

"I came here to ask you a question. Nothing more... How do we get the plants to grow?" she asked. Dororo perked up, but his voice still sounded depressed.

"You can't," he told her sadly. "The plants are gone for good. The spirits have left this planet. Without spirit energy, the planet can't live. It can't grow. The plants will never live again without them."

 _Spirits don't make plants grow. Sun and water do,_ Momoka thought to herself, waving off Dororo's explanation and just thinking it was superstitious.

"How do I get them to grow?" she asked again. "You must know a way. You're so good with plants, Dororo... Please, come back to the fortress with me and help me..."

Dororo shook his head. "NEVER!"

Momoka thought of how Tamama had been physically hurting Fuyuki when she saw him. He hadn't been in his right mind. It seemed that Dororo was at least somewhat similar.

She nodded. He wouldn't do any help like this.

"Wait," Dororo spoke. "Please... don't tell anyone I'm alive," he requested before she left.

"I would never hurt Koyuki that way. She mourns you everyday," Momoka answered him, denying his request. She left him.

Dororo just remained shocked.

* * *

Her first plan had failed to get the plant life alive again. Dororo was just too superstitious to give her answers.

But if it was science she was looking for... There was one Keronian who she could search out.

She needed her friends to help her, though. They had come across the mutated Kululu more than she had.

She approached Saburo, Koyuki, Natsumi and Giroro. Fuyuki was still recovering, so she didn't enlist his help. "I need to find Kululu to ask him about the plant life," Momoka told them. "Will you help me?"

"Why do you need Kululu?" Giroro asked curiously.

"He's a better scientist than anyone here. He'll know how to fix things. And without plant life we'll all die. I need him," Momoka stated. "So will you help me find and talk to him?"

Natsumi smiled nicely at her. "Of course. If it's to help this planet I'll do anything," she grinned.

Koyuki nodded. "Me too!"

"If Natsumi's going, I'm going," Giroro agreed. "And you'll need me to negotiate with him as another Keronian."

Saburo looked at the four and shook his head. "Sorry, guys, I have to bail on this one. Kululu... I can't talk to him." He shook his head. "I don't want to face him again."

Natsumi squeezed Saburo's hand. "It's all right. We'll take this one for you," she reassured. Saburo smiled. He was glad she was understanding.

With a quick nod from Momoka, they headed back to the outdoors again, together as a team.

* * *

Natsumi couldn't help but feel a bit worried about asking Kululu for help. He was so cruel, and their temporary alliance was dead. He had tried to kill them last time they had seen him.

"This way." Giroro led them to where Kululu usually stayed, trying to use his senses to get to him. He stopped for a moment. "Do you hear a ticking?"

"Our hearing isn't as good as yours," Natsumi teased, kissing Giroro on the cheek and squeezing his hand.

Koyuki pointed forward. "The... The town's no longer destroyed."

Natsumi snapped her head forward to see the town she once loved, not the image she remembered it, but huge, skyscrapers and factories all over the place. Steam filled the air, and the ground was covered by steel plates. The city was huge again, and new and giant robotic cranes seemed to be making more and more of it.

"It's amazing," Momoka smiled.

Natsumi saw movement - a humanoid figure moving in the city. She ran toward it, happy to see another human. But then she heard the ticking that Giroro had refereed to.

When she got close enough to view the human, she quickly realized it wasn't a human at all. Its stomach was filled with mechanical clockwork. It had a humanoid shape, but was quite clearly a clockwork soldier. Its eyes were lifeless, but it smiled at her nonetheless.

"Welcome," it told her in a cold voice. "Praise Kululu, our lord and master."

"Talk about gross," Giroro murmured under his breath. "He's made a new race to worship him as a god."

Natsumi saw that several of these lifeless clockwork beings were roaming the streets. Mutated rats were still there too, but these humanoid metal pieces had replaced the real life humans in the cities.

She wondered how many cities like these Kululu had made. He must have been busy.

"Ummm... we're here to see Kululu." Momoka shyly tried talking to the robot.

"Lord Kululu doesn't see just anyone. Are your parts malfunctioning?" the robot asked. "There's a repair shop." It whirled around and pointed.

Natsumi couldn't take her eyes off of all the clocks ticking in its stomach. "Wh-why... Why so many clocks?" she asked.

"Because time is meaningless. The future is in Lord Kululu's hands," it said in a dark voice.

"I think it would be best to find Kululu on our own," Giroro whispered to Natsumi, tugging at her hand to take her away from the mechanical soldier.

"Wait..." Natsumi paused to ask the robot another question. "How... How many cities like this are there?"

"Lord Kululu's shipped out parts to be all over the world. They're where every major city used to be. Lord Kululu owns this world, after all," said the robot.

* * *

After that Natsumi left, not wanting to hear how Kululu had colonized her dead planet any longer.

Giroro lead them through the streets. The clockwork people didn't bother them much, but eventually Giroro lead them to an elaborate castle. It had Kululu's face everywhere, so they knew it was where Kululu was staying.

He opened the doors and they all went down the long hall. Suddenly, all the lights switched off, making it pitch black.

"I can't see anything!" Momoka cried.

"Oh... not being able to see, what a travesty," Giroro said sarcastically.

"Can you lead us forward?" Natsumi asked, holding onto Giroro's shoulder. They were all at a disadvantage with the lights off, except for Giroro. They all relied primary on their sight.

"No need. I'm here. Ku, ku, ku." They heard Kululu's voice at the end of the hall and stumbled forward to it. "You could say, look what the cat dragged in? Ku, ku, ku!"

"Turning off the lights won't help you. Especially since sight is all you have," Giroro hissed, knowing he was trying to get the three Pekoponians at a disadvantage.

Kululu laughed. "I have hearing too! Ku, ku, ku. And, I can see perfectly well in the dark. So no problem for me. Night vision goes with my super eyes."

Natsumi felt distressed. "Kululu... We came to talk to you..."

"Thank you, Giroro, for bringing them. Just like I told you to," Kululu spoke.

"Huh?" Natsumi let go of Giroro's hand. Had... Had Giroro been working for Kululu all along? Did he just fake having his memories back? "What do you mean?"

"He brought you here because killing you was on my to-do list. Can't have a Nishizawa ruling my world, after all. That's what the blue-haired girl is, isn't she?" said Kululu.

Momoka growled. "You betrayed us, Giroro!" She fell for Kululu's lies.

"No! No I didn't! Why would I work for him? I would never help Kululu kill you!" Giroro insisted.

"You helped me all the time though, Giroro. While I didn't know of my true powers, you never killed me. You always let me live. You even saved my life the very first time we encountered a mutated Keronian... I recall you holding me back before I attacked Tamama, which would have undoubtedly killed me. You saved my life, Giroro. Just like the loyal comrade you are," Kululu thanked him.

"I didn't save your life because I was working for you!" Giroro yelled.

"You saved his life?" Natsumi asked. "So... you do help him?" She backed away. Everybody stumbled around in the dark.

Suddenly, hands latched around Natsumi, Koyuki, and Momoka. They heard ticking behind them. The mechanical soldiers had been called out and had grabbed them.

"Kululu! We didn't come here to fight!" Momoka tried to struggle against the grip. "We just wanted your help... Plant life is unable to grow. We request you help us grow it. Without it, we'll all die. Even you."

"Not me. I can make artificial food," Kululu gloated. "And not even I can make the plants grow. They're dead. And this planet is dying, too. The core is sick. I've seen this planet explode in the future."

"What?!" Natsumi started panicking, hearing the news was much more drastic than she had thought. The plants weren't growing because the entire planet was dying? They'd die on it, then!

"However, with a mechanical core, I can keep it alive. Only machinery can save this planet that no longer has the life energy through natural means... Dororo's stupid hippie spirit energy. So basically what I'm saying is this planet needs me. Ku. Only I can keep this planet alive." He turned to Giroro, who was loading his gun to shoot Kululu. "So go ahead and shoot, Giroro. Killing me will be killing this planet."

Giroro's hand started shaking. He brought his gun down. "What do you plan to do with Natsumi?" He knew he wasn't captured. Kululu was still trolling everybody saying that Giroro was his ally.

"You know, Giroro. Yu're welcome to live in my new world, since you've delivered my enemies to me. Kuuu, ku, ku," Kululu told him. "They know they can't beat me. Fighting back means everything they love will die. So they're mine."

"What do you want with us? Are you going to kill us quickly?" Natsumi asked.

"Ku. You wish. I'm going to take your eyeballs." Kululu grinned. "That way... No one else will ever have sight. I'm the only one who deserves to see."

Natsumi saw a bright red light. A laser was above them.

"You first, ally of Giroro. Ku, ku, ku." He placed the lasers in front of Natsumi. Natsumi tried not to cry.

"NO!" Giroro jumped forward and let the laser shoot his eyes instead, or more accurately, his new glass eyes. His glass eyes dripped out of his sockets, melting on the floor. He made a mangled scream at the burning sensation. But he launched himself into the mechanical soldier, setting Natsumi free.

"Made a mistake, Giroro. Although I knew you would. Ku, ku, ku. Still funny to see you in pain," Kululu laughed.

Giroro wiped the melted glass out of his eyes. "I'll never work for you, Kululu. Not even if the planet is dying. A day of freedom with Natsumi is better than an eternity with you."

Kululu frowned. "Just because you're a Pekoponian now doesn't mean I won't maim you. I was going to wait until I killed Natsumi to kill you, but I suppose I'll do it now."

"So... you lied about Giroro working for you?" said Natsumi.

"Duh," Kululu answered. "And you fell for it! I could see your distress and distrust!"

Giroro tilted his head down. He could hear her distrust, too. He supposed almost killing her still wasn't forgiven.

Koyuki and Momoka continued trying to struggle, but the mechanical soldiers placed hands over their mouths so they couldn't even plead for freedom.

"I'll kill you first," Kululu said to Giroro. "You're going to have to die for your disrespect." He got up out of his chair, and although Giroro couldn't see him, he could hear him.

He could also hear the laser placed toward his heart. Four lasers were now aimed at Giroro. Natsumi was on the floor, but her legs tensed up, ready to spring at Giroro to defend him.

" _No! Don't kill Giroro! Not like how you killed Tamama! You'll lose even more of your platoon mates!_ " The voice that had warned Giroro about Natsumi filled his head again.

"You killed Tamama?" Giroro gasped.

"Why... uhhh yes... Ku ku ku. But that doesn't have anything to do with the situation now. How did you know?" Kululu was slightly confused, but Giroro wasn't going to distract him.

Tears flowed down Momoka's face at the news. Natsumi gasped.

"The voice," Giroro said simply.

Kululu shrugged. "Well, that voice isn't going to save you now. Say good-bye. Clickie-poo!"

" _No! Kululu, don't!_ " The voice screamed. Giroro's muscles twitched at the voice that only he could hear. It was so farmilar. A voice that he hadn't heard in over a year.

"Mois!" He finally put his finger on what the voice sounded like.

Kululu's own finger hovered over the trigger. "What?" he paused and dropped the button for the lasers. "Wh-what... What did you say?"

"That's right!" Natsumi remembered. "We haven't seen Angol Mois at all! Where did she go? Tamama survived the bombings long enough... So where's she? Is she with you, Kululu?" Natsumi asked. She suspected she wasn't, or else Kululu would have mentioned it.

Kululu was silent for a good long time. "Ku, ku, ku, ku, ku!" He started laughing an incredibly large amount. "You think she's with me? No way! She's dead!" he reminded Natsumi.

"Wh-what?" Natsumi didn't want to think another of her friends were dead. It couldn't be. "No... No, she can't be dead!"

"She is. Tamama ate her. Remember, Giroro? You were there when we learned," said Kululu.

Giroro frowned. "I'm calling your bluff," he spoke proudly. "That can't be true. I just heard her speak."

"YOU DID NOT!" Kululu's voice was no longer calm and collected. Instead, he screamed. "Sh-she's dead! I've never heard her!"

"I'm the sense of hearing, though. I can hear more things than you," said Giroro. Kululu shivered.

Giroro heard him crank up a knob on his new headphones to increase his hearing. "M-Mois... Y-you there?" he whispered so that he didn't hurt his ears.

Giroro smiled. He then let out a loud battle cry that managed to topple Kululu over in pain from his ears.

 _He doesn't have real hearing, only replicated,_ Giroro thought. Giroro rushed forward to Koyuki and Momoka's sides with Natsumi and pulled the soldiers away from them. They didn't have any orders from Kululu, since he was holding his ears, so it was easy enough to free them.

They got on their feet quickly, out of fear.

Kululu also desperately got to his feet, still stumbling from the sound. "It doesn't matter... It doesn't matter if she'll only talk to you, or if you're delusioned. She's gone from _my_ life. She's gone for good," he hissed. "How dare you bring her up." He grabbed a knife he had under his chair for emergencies and rushed forward to Giroro as Giroro's back was turned.

Giroro whirled around, but Kululu was frozen, he wasn't moving.

Natsumi, Momoka and Koyuki backed away.

Kululu tried to tug out of the clutches of the invisible force that was holding him back. "Wh-what's going on?" he asked.

" _Leave. Please. He's angry. You seem to be the only one to hear me, Giroro. So listen to me... I'll hold him back for now. Please get away,_ " Mois's voice ordered softly.

Giroro nodded. "She says she'll hold him back and to leave," he told them.

"She? You mean Mois?" Kululu desperately tried to struggle free. "Sh-she's in here? Let me go!" he begged, but he wasn't let go.

Giroro turned away and left with everyone else. They had the information they needed, and they weren't about to fight Kululu when they didn't need to. It was better to leave him alone.

Soon enough, they were gone from his city.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	22. Old Friends

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

* * *

Natsumi helped Giroro back to the fortress. His eyes still burned from the melted glass. He needed to see a doctor.

"You're back! They said you'd be back soon!" To their surprise, waiting for them was Keroro. His cheeks were bright and green, and he no longer had antenna or hairy hands. He looked normal.

Natsumi jumped back.

"H-how...?" Koyuki asked, confused. This must have been an illusion.

"I... I saw you die!" Momoka accused. Giroro just still moaned in pain, desperately needing to scrape melted glass out of his sockets.

"K-Keroro? Is that you?" he asked, though.

"In the flesh!" Keroro said proudly. "G-Giroro? You look way different than when I saw you last! Did you mutate even more?" Giroro was clearly a human now. "What happened?"

Giroro didn't answer. He was just so shocked to hear Keroro not just alive, but completely back to normal. Was it a hologram? An illusion?

"S-stupid frog... Do you remember us?" asked Natsumi.

"Yeah. Sure do," Keroro smiled. "Remember Fuyuki, too." Fuyuki waved in the background.

"He's real! We did tests!" He looked overjoyed to have his friend back. Even saying the words seemed to bring him almost to tears.

"Wh-what happened?" Momoka asked. "He... He definitely died!"

"Jumping off a cliff into water is not the same as dying," Keroro corrected. "I floated around for a bit and healed."

Saburo cleared his throat, ready to explain. "From the tests Paul and I did on him, most likely the water somehow soaked up the radiation and the mutations. His antenna fell off, and his hearing, seeing, and even taste and smell fully returned to him. His touch dramatically decreased, though."

"How did you survive in all that sea water?" Giroro asked. Usually, the frogs dried up.

"I saw the nonteruma. You know, those water people that live on Pekopon. They're dying out from the pollution the radiation caused, but not completely dead," Keroro confessed. "As they helped me survive, they told me this planet has an internal clock that's ticking. The core is dying since all the spirits left in the apocalypse. Everything is dying. Soon this planet will explode. They offered to heal me, and bring me my comrade's body if I devoted the rest of my life to trying to find a way to fix the core, and not let them all die. I agreed," Keroro told them.

"They unmutated me as well," he added. "Told me that Pekopon was born with six senses and that it might help to return those senses back to the planet. So I returned mine, hoping those spirits would come back."

Giroro flexed his hands. These people could unmutate them? He doubted they could give him back his eyes, but he would love to fully be who he was again.

"Your comrade's body...?" Momoka was confused by one subject matter in Keroro's speech. Keroro pointed to a tube with Tamama's floating, mutated body in it.

Momoka covered her mouth, disgusted.

"We're trying to fix him. Figure out what healed Keroro and implement it. He's dangerous the way he is, but we're keeping him alive," Fuyuki told her. Tamama looked like he had an oxygen mask on as he floated in water. An IV was in his arm for nutrition. "He was just barely alive when the Sarge brought him. What happened to him?"

"He fell off the cliff," Keroro told them.

"Kululu happened," Koyuki corrected. "He told us he killed Tamama."

"What? Kululu was the one at fault?" Keroro was shocked. "But... he's our platoon mate..." He was so confused.

"What did they mean, six senses?" Natsumi asked. "There's only five of you..."

"I know about the six sense!" Fuyuki raised his hand enthusiastically. Out of seemingly nowhere, he took out journals upon journals of paranormal research on the sixth sense. Then he started ranting about things nobody cared about.

"Okay, okay, sure, that's interesting," Natsumi lied as Giroro sat down to just wrap his head around Keroro being alive. "But nobody mutated into this sixth sense!"

At that moment, the cell phone of one of Momoka's guards, Yoshiokadaira, rang.

Everyone turned to him, their eyes wide. Cell phone communication was down. For no legitimate reason should his phone have rung.

He opened it to check it.

" _I believe you are referring to me_ ," a text message read.

* * *

After Giroro, Natsumi, Koyuki and Momoka had escaped Kululu, Angol Mois had tried to let Kululu calm down. After letting him go, he mostly just hissed and cried and spoke about how she wasn't gone, but also angrily told her that if she wasn't going to talk to him, to go away.

So she did, she left to check on Giroro and the rest. Seeing the door wide open to the Nishizawa fortress, for once she finally made it in to the place.

And as she looked around, she found something she had long since searched for. A cell phone! Pulling out her own cell phone, she tried to send a message to it.

And it had rung.

* * *

"What." Natsumi was the one to speak, "Who sent this?"

" _Me!_ " The phone rang again with a text. " _Angol Mois! I was exposed to a large amount of radiation, too!_ "

"What does it say?" Giroro asked. He couldn't read it. They read it aloud to him.

"But... how... How come we can't see Mois?" Keroro scratched his head. "I was wondering why we hadn't seen her with the Private."

"It's because he told us he ate her," Giroro reminded him.

"He did?" Keroro asked. He didn't remember that. Honestly, during his mutated months, most of his memories were just a blur of pretty constant but mind-blowing oral sex. And he really decided he shouldn't talk about that. With him being the sense of touch and Tamama the sense of taste... Well, it just sort of happened.

"You okay, Sarge? You're turning pink," Fuyuki noticed.

"I am? Oh... Jus,t um... coughing," Keroro lied. "Anyway, why can't we see her?"

" _I'm on a different plane from you. The spirit plane. I'm not dead, but I'm not on your plane or Angol's plane. My body was vaporized in both of them from the radiation I took in,_ " Mois explained over text.

"The spirit plane, huh?" Koyuki murmured. Hadn't Kululu and Keroro spoken about how the planet was having problems because all the spirits had left? Was Mois technically a spirit now?

Suddenly the phone started dimming. It finally powered off.

"What happened?" Natsumi asked.

"Oops... That was the last of the battery life," Yoshiokadaira laughed, awkwardly. They all glared at him.

"It's all right," Giroro told them. "If she's texting us, that means she might be here." He craned his neck. "I... I can hear her, at least some of the time. After I fish this glass out of my eye, how about I work with communicating with her?"

Natsumi nodded. "That would be great."

Paul got some doctors to help Giroro with his medical needs. And most of them dispersed to do their own thing since Giroro was the only one who could really contact Mois. His sense of hearing was compatible with her.

* * *

Keroro stayed in front of the tube holding Tamama, watching his comrade.

"Feeling bad?" Fuyuki asked, happy to have his friend back, but knowing that Keroro was worried.

"Yeah," Keroro admitted. "I don't know when he'll be better."

"Tamama was way different as a mutant. I mean... He wasn't the good sort of occult finding, he was more like scary," Fuyuki admitted.

Keroro shook his head. "It... It was all my fault that happened to him. He shouldn't have been left alone. I've tried to make it right for so many months... So many. But even now I've left him alone. I'm the one healed and with my friends. Not him."

Fuyuki pat Keroro on the shoulder. "I'm just glad to have you back," he told him. He could see Keroro was crying a little bit. Tamama hadn't gotten any better. His tongue still was long and so was his body, and his hands were still skeletal. Little bits of acid were stilloozing from his ears.

"I'm... I'm happy to be alive," said Keroro. "I would never _not_ be happy to be alive. But I wish my whole platoon hadn't paid for my stupid choices to send Mois and Tamama to the grocery store."

"Do you feel bad for Mois, too?" Saburo asked, picking up on how Keroro seemed to mostly place the blame on himself for what happened to Tamama, and had mostly ignored the other person he had wronged in the same way.

Keroro looked up, awkwardly having forgotten about feeling guilty about her. "Of course! It's just that Mois wasn't the one who told me that it was my fault! Mois wasn't waiting every day for me to find her! Tamama was, though! And I didn't." He started crying.

"How do you know Mois wasn't? Her body was entirely obliterated," said Saburo.

"She hasn't made an effort to contact me at all in the past year. She has, however, managed to reach Giroro," said Keroro. "If she wanted to see me, she could have moved my hand to her hair or something. I could have felt her if my hand didn't go through."

"Maybe you were too busy with Tamama?" said Saburo.

Keroro thought. He had hoped Mois hadn't walked in on any of those... well... "I sure hope not." He winced. "But... I'm mostly more worried about Tamama, because he seems more vulnerable. He needs me more than Mois does at the moment. Mois probably was strong enough to deal with this on her own, but Tamama... He needs me." Keroro kept watching his platoon mate.

Saburo and Fuyuki sighed. There would be no reasoning with Keroro and telling him that it hadn't been his fault. In his mind, it always would be.

Tamama must have said some pretty horrifying things.

* * *

Natsumi held Giroro's hand and turned away as he had his sockets cleaned and purified.

"Do you want new fake eyes?" Paul asked.

"I think I just want a cool blindfold this time. It looks nicer than cold glass eyes, and it probably hurts less to burn off," Giroro said. "Actually, give me the eyes, too, so that I don't get dust trapped there."

Paul nodded.

"I'm sure your blindfold will look cool," Natsumi told him. She squeezed his hand, but wondered if, after Tamama was healed, he would get healed, too. If he did, they might lose their chance to talk to Mois. And that might prove to be an issue.

* * *

Momoka sat by Koyuki. She had something long overdue to tell her at the realization that Keroro and Tamama were alive.

"I wonder if Dororo is out there...Or if it's too late for him." Koyuki had never stopped thinking about Dororo, never forgotten him, despite how nobody seemed to give her news about him.

"He is," Momoka told her. "Out there, I mean." She grabbed her hands. "Koyuki... He's alive. I saw him. He begged me not to tell you, but you deserve to know the truth."

"Dororo's alive?" Koyuki was shocked. Momoka nodded.

"He's... He's very different-looking... And seems to be in constant distress, but he's alive. He's the one who's been giving you letters and presents, Koyuki," said Momoka.

Koyuki cried into her hands in happiness. She was so glad that her friend was alive.

Giroro walked into the room, hearing what Momoka was talking about. "You told her?" he asked.

Momoka nodded.

"Why won't he come see me?" Koyuki asked.

"Well for one thing, he's blind," said Giroro. "And another thing... Apparently Keronians who are mutated leak radiation. That's why I'm in a human form, because it's suppressed my radiation levels. Tamama's probably safe because, he's contained, but Dororo and Kululu are definitely dangers. He doesn't want to poison you," Giroro explained.

Koyuki cried some more.

"I have something to talk to you about, by the way," Giroro whispered to Momoka. Momoka stood up and left the crying Koyuki to Natsumi's hands.

"What is it?" Momoka asked.

"I want to find Dororo and talk to him again about the spirits. Get Mois's exact location. Ask for him to sniff her out," said Giroro. "I was talking to her a bit after the phone failed, but she hasn't spoken since. I think she might have left."

"What did she say?" Momoka asked curiously.

"It was about the planet's life. It seems what Kululu said about the spirits fueling the core was true. The planet's internal clock is dwindling. It'll explode itself soon. His fix about using machinery, however, according to Mois, won't work. It won't save us," he said.

Momoka's mouth opened a little in shock. "We'd better get Dororo, then."

Giroro nodded. "I'll reason with him. Don't worry," he promised. "He needs to know it's either death or helping us."

* * *

 **All right, I'm just going to clear something up about the senses. Based on how much senses you lose, the more powerful your main sense is. Since Tamama, Dororo, and Keroro could hear a little, their senses aren't as powerful as Giroro and Kululu's. (I had to let them hear for story purposes)**

 **Also each of their senses could interact with Mois, except sight since she is on a different plane, or at least her image is. So sucks for Kululu.**

 **Please review!**


	23. Life Begins Anew

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything at all.**

* * *

Giroro knew that finding Dororo and using him to locate Angol Mois was a job meant specifically for him. Natsumi couldn't come. Dororo would shy away from her. He didn't want to interact with Pekoponians, thinking that he'd poison them.

That, and he knew Dororo would probably be easier to reason with if he was on his own. They were friends, but he probably wouldn't do well thinking that Giroro had betrayed his trust and told everybody that Dororo was alive, something he hadn't done but Momoka had, but it would be the same to Dororo.

"I'll be back soon," Giroro promised, hugging Natsumi. "And when I come back, I'll have both Dororo and Mois."

"Be safe. Don't get hurt," Natsumi begged, caressing his face. She gave him a quick sweet kiss on the lips and let him go off.

Giroro sighed. Finding Dororo would be easier said then done. Locating people was easier with a sense of smell, or sight, when you could track someone.

All he could do was hear, though. And Dororo was mostly silent in his actions. He hoped Dororo was moving a lot and that his bladed legs were scraping against something.

* * *

They were scraping - scraping against metal. And Giroro knew only one place that had the constant sound of metal.

"He's in Kululu's domain," he realized. He really didn't want to interact with Kululu again, but worst case scenario, Dororo was with him.

He wouldn't be working with him, so perhaps Kululu was trying to kill him, too.

Giroro hurried over to his old friend, throwing away his fear of confronting Kululu again. He'd just have to deal.

* * *

"Machines won't heal this planet. It has to heal itself!" Dororo insisted, holding his sword toward Kululu.

"Ku. If you think this place is going to heal itself, then you'll die a meaningless and preventable death," Kululu mocked.

"I will not die meaninglessly," Dororo told him, trying to be honorable. "I will die today, bringing you down with me. You are hurting this planet, and my friends. You must die, Kululu."

"Oh? And you're going to fight me on the brink of sacrificing your life, killing yourself and me in the process? You could say, going out with a bang?" Kululu asked. He could see the future, the one in which Dororo's plan of fighting with his all didn't work. Kululu would easily beat him, tearing out his heart with his clockwork soldiers. "Ku, bring it on then." He grinned. There was no risk for him. His vision told him so.

Dororo had no idea he'd fight a losing battle. And he had to try. _Now that Momoka knows I'm alive, she'll tell Koyuki. And Koyuki will seek me out... But... My existence will poison her. She's too nice to leave me alone, so I must die._ His time was dwindling in this world. He had to save Koyuki, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.

He charged forward, and Kululu mentally ordered one of his clockwork soldiers to strike. The arm swooped down, emitting no smell so Dororo couldn't predict it. It would have been a clean kill.

But then a ray of bullets zoomed forward, hitting the clockwork soldier away.

 _Ku. Interesting,_ Kululu thought to himself, seeing Giroro. His eye that predicted the future hadn't shown Giroro. After all, it was only one eye, and it only showed the most likely future. If the future changed in a few seconds by someone's whimsical choice, it seemed like he would be vulnerable. But Kululu played it cool. "Ku, ku, ku. So you're back Giroro. You wanted to join your friend in death?" he offered. Giroro was here now, and he could plan based on that, knowing Giroro wouldn't interrupt his vision now.

Dororo took a deep breath, realizing that Giroro had saved his life. "Thank you," he told him.

"No problem," Giroro smiled. "And no, Kululu, I'm not here to die," he said. "I'm here for Dororo."

Dororo froze up. "Did... Did they send you to find me? To bring me back?" He changed the arm he was holding his sword in, to be closer to him than Kululu.

"Kind of. We need you - " Giroro tried to explain. Kululu cut him off though by grabbing a gun on the wall and shooting at their feet.

"Hey. Rude to interrupt. Dororo and I were in the middle of a battle."

Dororo nodded. "We'll talk after Kululu is dead."

"You can't kill me, though," Kululu pointed out, "Not only am I stronger than you, but the world needs me. The planet won't heal itself. My way is the only answer."

Dororo shook his head. It couldn't be. Machinery couldn't save the planet! Pekopon was pure and natural. It didn't need Kululu to lead it.

Dororo continuously shook his head, but he knew deep down Pekopon wouldn't heal on its own. Kululu walked closer and closer to Dororo, ready to kill him with a laser blade and slice him away.

Giroro wouldn't let that happen. He didn't care if Kululu was in his old platoon. He shot straight at Kululu.

"Urk!" Kululu stepped back and put his hand at his chest, having seen the bullet head straight for him. He didn't feel anything, but there was no way it couldn't have hit. It was a clean shot. And Giroro's split-second decision had made it unpredictable. He had been too focused on Dororo.

Dororo stepped back, covering his nose with his claws. He could smell the blood, and he didn't want to go into a frenzy.

"Wait... Wait a minute..." Kululu looked up at Giroro, confused. "I'm fine." He took his hand off his chest. It wasn't covered in blood.

However, there was a splatter of blood coming from a space in the air between Giroro and him. It dripped to the ground, causing the ground to glow a tiny bit.

A small sprout sprouted slowly from the splatter of blood. Giroro couldn't see the green, he didn't know.

"You aren't hit?" Giroro asked, confused.

Dororo pointed. "Wh-what's bleeding instead, then?" he asked. "Could it be... a spirit? I smell the spiritual energy returning to Pekopon..." He sniffed. "And... is that a plant?"

"So it is." Kululu was confused.

Giroro's mind sparked an idea. "A spirit! I might have hit something!" He smiled. "Dororo... That reminds me what I need from you." He turned to him. "I need you to sniff out Angol Mois."

"I... I can't help you and Momoka, Giroro... Getting closer to you all will poison you - "

"The Nishizawas are working on a cure for the mutations. Keroro has already been cured," said Giroro. "If you help, we can cure you, and you can speak with your friends."

Dororo's face brightened. He could see Koyuki again?

"I-I'll do it!" he agreed.

"STOP IT!" Kululu yelled. "Mois is dead! Don't talk about her as if you can just find her if you try hard enough!" Twenty clockwork soldiers surrounded Giroro and Dororo, blocking the exit, ready to kill them for their insolence.

"She's alive. Or... Or maybe was. I mean, that I hit something between the both of us is proof enough. Wasn't she bleeding? You might not have seen her, but you saw the blood, right?" Giroro asked.

Kululu was silent. The clockwork soldiers darted forward. "Stop," he ordered his soldiers. "You can have a choice right now. Die... or leave and don't return," he decided. He... He needed to consider this. Was Mois there bleeding?

Giroro nodded and lead Dororo away, thankful that mentioning Mois had let them escape again. Kululu was really predictable.

He expected that Mois would follow them, especially since he had mentioned Keroro. Then he could ask Dororo to smell out her exact location.

So he headed back to the Nishizawa fortress.

* * *

"Mois..." Kululu spoke out the name as soon as he felt Giroro was out of hearing distance or not listening. He reached out as if to touch her, but grasped only air. "Are... Are you really there? Alive?

"Will you show yourself to me? Please... Reveal yourself," he begged. Nothing appeared before him.

His lip quivered. Giroro had been lying...Hadn't he? Or was she just there and mocking him, not showing herself to him?

He put his finger in the pool of her blood. Was it her blood? It was purple-ish, light, not red like his own blood. It looked spiritual, not like his. It had started crystallizing.

"If you won't show yourself to me... Please talk to me. Tell me what was I to you. What were you to me? Why does it hurt so much that you're not here? Please... Please just talk to me, Mois." He heard only silence, though, as always.

"Nothing is here, my lord." One of his clockwork robots told him, seeing him talk out loud.

And Kululu curled up and cried. Every time he hoped, he was wrong. She wasn't anywhere. She was gone.

* * *

Dororo twitched as Giroro brought him to the Nishizawa fortress. He took a deep breath. He had to go in there to be cured. He covered his face with his arms, though, not wanting to be seen.

Giroro picked him up. He'd carry him.

When he opened the doors, Keroro was cheering. Tamama was perfectly well and in his arms, being hugged. He would still have to deal with many stretch marks, and the rest of his hands had to regrow (if it COULD, that was), but for the most part he looked a lot better.

"Giroro! You're back! We... We found the cure!" he said.

Dororo's eyes were wide as he smelled Tamama. "How...? How did you cure him?"

Keroro smiled. "We tried submerging him in salt water and then pumping fresh water into his veins so he wouldn't dry up. And it worked! Took a little while for him to unmutate, but he's back now!" Keroro was overjoyed.

"Wh-what... What happened?" Tamama rubbed his head. All he knew was that Keroro was hugging him. And that seemed good. The nightmare of the last year and a month seemed like just a hazy dream. He didn't remember at all how cruel he had been.

Tamama tried to stand up on his own as Keroro put him down a bit. He quickly became too dizzy to stand, and had to use Keroro to balance himself.

A tear fell down Momoka's cheek in happiness. It was such great news that Tamama was back. She smiled when she saw Dororo. "We could do the same for you, you know," she smiled.

Dororo nodded. "That is why I came."

Koyuki had been looking at Tamama, but her head snapped toward the voice. Covering her mouth to let out an overjoyed sob, she just looked at him. Dororo hid his face in Giroro's shirt.

"I'm... I'm sorry for my terrible body, lady Koyuki," he apologized.

"It's you, no matter what you look like," Koyuki told him. "I... I missed you so much. I thought of you all the time, Dororo. You always remained in my heart. You were right, nothing could separate us."

Dororo smiled and blushed. She tried approaching Giroro to hug her friend, but Giroro shook his head.

"Could be dangerous to touch him. Don't come any closer," Giroro advised. Koyuki frowned. She wanted to hug Dororo.

"Hey... Hey Tamama, can I ask you something?" Natsumi asked, looking over at Tamama, who was still dizzy.

"Sure... Natchi? I guess." Tamama nodded.

"Angol Mois... We need her. But from what I heard from Giroro and Kululu, you said you ate her. But she also contacted us. How can that be?" Natsumi asked.

Dororo nodded. "That's right. You did eat her!" He tried to direct the conversation away from Koyuki's attention on him.

Tamama frowned. "When I wake up, the first thing I get to talk about is _that_ woman?" he muttered.

Keroro put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "Try to remember what happened to her. Please."

Tamama growled at Keroro's concern with her, but sighed. He finally closed his eyes and tried to remember the hazy dream that had been his mutation.

"She... She lead us to shelter so we wouldn't die... And using her phone, she predicted the bomb locations... One was heading to your house, so she headed off to stop it. I never saw her again," Tamama finally remembered. "She probably blew up deflecting it!" He laughed.

Keroro and Momoka scowled at him. Tamama looked down guiltily.

"Why did you say you ate her, then?" asked Giroro.

"I... I wanted to be the one to kill that woman..." Tamama confessed.

"At the time, right? Because of your mutation messing with your head?" Keroro asked.

"Sure," he lied. "Sure, just you keep on believing that, Mr. Sergeant!" He paused, "So I lied about it. She was dead anyway, so it didn't matter."

"She's not dead. Her body was vaporized, it seems. She's on the spirit plane," Giroro explained. "She's like the sixth sense or something."

"Yes... I think she definitely classifies as a spirit. She bled, I believe, and in her blood a plant sprouted... Energy was returned to Pekopon. With her, there's hope for saving the planet without the help of machinery," Dororo shared.

"Good. So she will be useful." Natsumi smiled. "Dororo... We need you to locate her. Can you smell her out? If you do it, we'll put you in the tank and unmutate you."

Dororo frowned, knowing it had a condition. "She's not here," he said. "If you wanted me to capture her and bring her to you, you should have told me earlier. Her smell... She stayed back with Kululu."

Everybody frowned. They didn't know why she was over with Kululu, but this would mean it was harder to get her.

"Please... Please return me to normal," he begged.

They saw his sad little face and couldn't refuse. Saburo went over to Dororo and picked him up. "We'll put you in the tank then."

Dororo smiled. As he was put into the tank, water slowly surrounded him. He turned to Koyuki hopefully.

"I hope that I will awaken to a green world," he wished. "And I hope to see you again, Lady Koyuki. To actually see you."

"I'll miss you," she told him.

"I love you dearly, my friend," he told her. Finally, he went under. The operation started and Paul inserted the IV and breathing mask.

Koyuki cried out of happiness. Dororo would soon be back to her.

* * *

Tamama's memories were slowly coming back to him. He remembered at least how cruel he had been, nightmarishly cruel, and especially manipulative to Keroro. Although he was happy that they had been in a relationship, he suspected that the sort of relationship they had been hadn't been right, it had formed mostly from Keroro's guilt.

Keroro was by Koyuki's side, looking at the tank and waiting for another of his platoon mates to heal. It was as if, as soon as Tamama was back to normal, he was putting equal attention to all of his platoon!

"W-we... We were in a relationship, weren't we?" Tamama asked Keroro hesitantly. He suspected that, now that the conditions that had forced them into that were over, their relationship would be, too. He felt bad. He hadn't wanted to damage his relationship with Keroro like that.

"Yep," Keroro awkwardly responded, keeping his eyes on Dororo instead of Tamama.

Tamama rubbed his arm. "Are... Are we going to talk about that? Or... Or are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you," Keroro told him. "You weren't in your right mind. Neither was I. You felt so alone, and that was mostly my fault. I'm sorry... I won't leave you again," he promised. But he clearly didn't want to talk about their relationship, even though he wasn't mad.

"It... It wasn't a very healthy relationship, was it? I mean... Didn't I sic you on Fukki?" Tamama asked, talking about it despite Keroro's wishes.

"Oh yeah. You did! I had kind of forgotten," Keroro admitted. He had felt so awkward about the relationship part, he had completely forgotten the completely unhealthy part.

"I'm sorry that I was such an unhealthy boyfriend," Tamama apologized.

Keroro stretched out his hand and pat him on the head. "It's all right... It wasn't your fault."

Tamama felt like it really was though. "It's...It's over isn't it?" Tamama asked his eyes wide and sad.

Keroro gave a stiff nod. Tamama tried not to cry, he just turned away from Keroro and headed off to Momoka, leaving Keroro by Dororo's side.

* * *

"Are... Are you going to go through treatment, too?" Natsumi asked, cuddling up on a couch with Giroro. "Do you want to?"

"I want to," Giroro said. "But... I have to remain how I am for now. At least until we locate Angol Mois. Without Dororo, I'm the only one who can communicate with her now," he said. "I still have a little bit left of juice in my gun. I should be fine for not poisoning you all."

Natsumi nodded. She hoped this would be all over soon. And that Giroro could return to how he had been before.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	24. Dying Core

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

 **Wow. The story is almost done. Next chapter is technically the final chapter and then after that the epilogue. Soon it will be over. Yay!**

* * *

 _So Keroro's alive and well..._ Kululu wondered about what being unmutated would be like. Had that meant that Keroro had his memories back?

He remembered Giroro talking about it during their fight the previous day. Giroro had certainly gotten his memories back, that much was clear. But Giroro had also become a Pekoponian, for some reason. Probably from one of his old inventions ,most likely.

Still... the aspect that everybody except him was recovering their memories made Kululu uncomfortable. No, not uncomfortable, jealous.

The days before his mutation were still a blur. He was still weak in that aspect. He could barely remember what Mois even looked like, besides her sparkly golden eyes. Sometimes he could see her lips in his head, moving, but he couldn't hear her voice.

He could see her sometimes, briefly, a blur. But he didn't know anything that they had done together, or what she was like. He didn't know a single thing about her. Did she have blonde or silver hair, for one? He didn't know.

He wanted his memories. But they'd never return to him. For some reason, though, Giroro had his memories and he hadn't had to give up his mutation to get them.

Kululu was mad. Not only that, but Giroro constantly claimed that Angol Mois spoke to him. Why wouldn't she ever speak to him?

 _Wait... if she wasn't eaten by Tamama... was she in cahoots with him?_ Kululu wondered. It made sense to him. What if she and Tamama had pretended she was eaten to trick him? To hurt him physiologically. He still remembered the pain he had experienced in learning she was dead. It had never left him.

If Giroro was right and she wasn't dead, she was working with Tamama to trick him. And his feelings for her had poisoned his heart, making him fall for her tricks one after another.

He was shaking. He was no longer crying on the ground, but his mind was swirling with scenario after scenario about this strange girl.

Becoming a power-hungry dictator with no memories was stressful, and Kululu was finally completely losing it mentally.

He finally just laughed and laughed. He knew only one thing, and that was that he was in love with Mois. But with all this pain, he didn't want to be.

She was constantly in his head poisoning him.

"Ku, ku, ku, ku! I don't even care anymore," he lied. He had to focus on actual important things, things that were important to his life here and now.

His power. And he remembered how Giroro had spoken of Keroro becoming cured from his mutation. It was likely Giroro would get everybody cured eventually.

And that included Kululu. His mutation had made him too strong now for him to go back to the way things were. It was the first time in Kululu's life that he was strong and wasn't blind.

 _They won't get to me._ Kululu pressed a button of a small device he had put on Dororo while Dororo wasn't paying attention. It would let him listen in on any nearby conversations Dororo might be present for.

He'd figure out what they were planning. And then he'd eliminate them, for all the wrongs they had done to him.

"Ku, ku, ku... How dare Giroro make me think she's alive. That she tricked me," he cursed.

* * *

"So... it's been confirmed?" Momoka asked Paul and her father, in front of Dororo's tank.

"Yes," said her father. "Although Kululu's solution of using machinery to make the planet's core run seems ideal, it won't actually work. No matter how smart he is, without the natural energy, a half-real and half-artificial planet won't run. The planet is doomed unless we can somehow return that spirit energy to it."

Natsumi cursed under her breath. Giroro stomped his feet. Keroro looked worried.

Fuyuki tried to remain optimistic. "I'm sure we can get the spirits back if we really try!" Aki held her son closer to her, worried for him.

Koyuki frowned. She knew there were no spirits. It seemed Mois really was their only hope.

* * *

Kululu was shocked as the Pekoponians continued discussing his plans, and how the solution he had found seemed to not be successful.

Quickly, he ran the math. He had already submitted the gears to try to make the core run, but as they had thought, the planet was still dying.

Kululu wasn't the solution. And now he had to figure out what to do. This planet was his. He was the ruler of this planet now!

But it was dying, and Kululu couldn't save it. Did he act like an idiot and help everybody, or did he cut his losses?

 _If I was stupid and good-willed like they are, I'd join them. But... if I joined them, they'd insist I should go back to normal. I'd lose my sight._ His sight was so important to him. He liked being able to see. He liked it so much.

He liked being powerful. He was afraid of becoming weak again. He'd never let them unmutate them.

 _I guess working with them really isn't an option then. So... I must cut my losses,_ he decided. If the planet was going to die, it should go out with a bang.

Kululu's lips formed a deranged smile. He'd destroy the planet. If he was going to die on this miserable mud ball, it should definitely go out in style. Not by natural causes, but by him.

 _Ku. I'll be like a planet destroyer. I wonder if any Keronian has ever experienced destroying an entire planet before._ "Planet destroyer..." He spoke those words out loud from his thoughts. The word had a certain sense of nostalgia. What he would inevitably become.

It was a fine occupation.

 _I won't be an invader any longer. I'm going to become a planet destroyer!_ he decided. It would be his last act as the planet's invader.

He wondered why that word had such a sense of nostalgia. Had Mois been a planet destroyer? He smiled. _That sounds about right. Her being a planet destroyer._ It made him a bit happy to actually know something about her. In his last moments he might feel a little bit closer to her.

He didn't say any of his plan out loud. If Mois was alive and hiding from him, she'd leave to tell Giroro of his plans. She'd betray him.

He still didn't know, though. Was she alive? Dead? He was so uncertain and confused. His mind was perplexed.

"Mois... you there?" he asked. She didn't answer, of course, as she always did. "I know you're not there, but... if you are, can I ask a question just for you think about?" His voice sounded bitter, angry at her. Hurt. "Did I mean anything to you? Anything at all?" He crossed his arms bitterly.

She wouldn't answer.

"I can't see you... But god does it hurt to not have you here. I... I wish I could see you..." A small memory sparked in his mind of her looking at him and him shivering. Had he been frightened of her? He wished he could afford that luxury now, of being frightened of her. All he wanted was to have her back, though. "I want to see you. See you looking at me. I want you back." He knew putting his feelings out there wouldn't help him. But he felt so lonely, so incredibly lonely.

He felt some sort of force push up against his lips. He didn't know what it was, but something was definitely there. He closed his eyes and let it up against him. He tried not to cry in happiness that he hoped that this was finally her and she was giving him a sign. A tear slipped down his cheek anyway, as he tried to kiss whatever was on him.

Eventually the force pulled away. Kululu smiled softly. "I... I can't feel anything. I know that was you. But I don't know what was pressed up against me. Was it your finger? Your lips? Or something you were holding? I'll never know," he spoke. He felt a small amount of energy energizing him, though. Was it her spiritual energy? Like she had given the planet when she bled.

He felt the force drape itself over him. He didn't know if she was hugging him, or trying to push him somewhere.

He felt calmer, imagining that he was in her arms. He calmly tried to remember things about her, finally reaching the conclusion that she had most definitely been a planet destroyer.

Kululu smiled. He felt at peace with his decision to kill everybody. She would have liked it.

As he was held in her arms, seeping off her energy, he thought about what this meant. She was too kind to trick him, but that meant that she was definitely dead. But at the same time she was there with him, like Giroro had concluded.

 _Ah. She's a ghost. That must be it,_ he realized. That made sense. She was on the spirit plane, after all. He cuddled up to her, nuzzling his face into some part of her body. He wasn't sure what it was - all he knew was it was round. Was it her head, or her boobs? He assumed breasts, because there were two of them. He didn't remember her having two heads.

 _You wanted the planet destroyed, didn't you?_ He could finally remember her voice, softly uttering an "Armaggedon!" and hitting the ground. She had loved planetary destruction. She would have been proud.

 _And when I die on this planet, I'll finally be able to see you. We'll be together in death. I'll be with you again._ Kululu smiled. The decision to kill himself and the planet had been quite an easy one.

He reached his hands up higher on her body, trying to figure out where the force stopped. He shaped out her face, and eventually got his hand on her cheek, bringing his lips up to where he hoped her mouth was, giving her a soft kiss on the lips.

"I want to see you smile," he spoke softly. Hopefully, in the moments he was obliterated from planetary destruction, he'd see her smile. She'd be there. He felt happier and happier with his choice to kill everybody the more he thought about it. "I love you," he finally whispered to her.

He felt her press up against his lips again. This time his common sense told him that she was kissing him. He kissed back, happily.

Eventually he pulled away. He knew Tamama had been wrong about the fact that she wasn't his girlfriend.

"I need to work now, Mois," he told her. She couldn't know he was destroying the planet. It would be a surprise, just for her. "Would you let me work in peace?" he requested. "I want to make you something. A surprise. You can leave and talk to Giroro or whatever if you want, but please leave me to work for now."

He felt her leave him, and he smiled. She'd be so happy when this planet was dead.

So he got to work when the door shut behind her.

* * *

Angol Mois got back to the Nishizawa fortress. Giroro polished his gun in stress.

"I'm back," she said.

Giroro perked up. "She's back! She's here!" he told them. "We can ask advice from her now."

"But we can't hear her," Natsumi pointed out.

"I'll try to establish a better link with her, to focus on her more and translate for you," he offered. He turned to where Mois's voice was coming from. "Mois... The core is dying. Do you know what to do?"

"I do not," she admitted. "The spirits have left this planet. The core won't be able to work, soon... it will die."

"Do you want it to die, woman?" Tamama accused. "You've always wanted this planet to die!"

"I don't want Pekopon to die. All the evil Pekoponians are gone, so my job is done. And I want desperately for my friends to live. That's why I came to this plane, after all. I've done so much trying to get you to survive," she told Tamama.

Giroro translated. "She says she doesn't want us to die, she is doing everything in her power to get us to live. All the evil Pekoponians are dead so she has no reason to want this planet dead."

Natsumi nodded. Mois wanting to help would play a big part in helping them.

"Hey... Mois's a spirit, kind of, right?" Fuyuki brought up. "Or does she count as a mutated sense? I mean she's on the spirit plane, technically. That's why we can't see her, right?"

"Yeah...And her blood sprouted plant life. It returned energy to the core," Giroro recalled.

"You're not thinking of bleeding me, are you?" asked Mois.

Fuyuki didn't hear her. "What if we somehow bonded Mois to the core? Made her into a spiritual protector of the planet, sealed their energy together? Would that save the planet?"

Koyuki thought for a moment. So did Mois. Fuyuki sketched up the plans, trying to put his occult knowledge to good work. "It could be a possibility."

"But then Mois couldn't leave the planet. She'd be stuck here forever," Saburo pointed out.

"Both my Angolian and Pekoponian bodies have been obliterated. At the moment, I'm stuck in the spirit plane, so I'd be willing. Not like I have much of a choice," Mois laughed.

Giroro translated again. "She's says she'd be okay with it."

Paul, Momoka's father, and Saburo worked with the science side of the occult facts. Koyuki helped input her spiritual knowledge, learning that bonding Mois to the core, making her into a spiritual protector, _would_ in fact save the planet as predicted.

"But... _how_ do we bond Mois to the core?" Natsumi asked, confused. They seemed to be missing that crucial detail.

"I know a ritual," Koyuki confessed. "It's an ancient ritual usually used to trap evil spirits, but it can be used to trap any spirit. Then we could release her out of the talisman we would put her in, bonding her to a certain spot in the ground that we choose, and she could get into the core. Bonding her to the land might let us see her again!" Koyuki suggested. She took a talisman out of her pocket that she could use, one that she happened to have on her for whatever reason.

"I'd like that. I'd like to be seen again," Mois smiled. "I want to see you all, to talk to you. It would be especially nice to be able to talk to Kululu. I mean, he finally realized I was alive today, so that's some progress."

"She says she's down for it," Giroro responded, cutting out the bit about Kululu. He assumed that was their private life.

"Let's do the ritual, then," Natsumi agreed.

Koyuki had already started painting the ground. "I need five objects that might channel energy," she said.

Saburo handed over his inkless pen. Hopefully that would work. It was special to him, being the only object of his that Kululu had given him, that he had on him.

Keroro put down Dororo's sword, not asking permission, like always.

Momoka put down a Fuyuki doll. Fuyuki grimaced.

"Will that hurt the doll?" he asked. "Or will it be cool that it's channeling spirit energy?"

Momoka shrugged. She didn't know.

Natsumi put down a picture Giroro had drawn her. It was no loss if it was broken, because it was a horribly drawn picture. Actually, having no eyes probably helped for once. But Giroro didn't need to know that. "It's special to me," she lied, hoping Giroro would take the bait.

He did. He smiled proudly.

Aki put down her wedding ring.

"Stand here, Mois." Koyuki put the talisman on the ground in the middle.

"She says she's standing," Giroro told them.

"Enim si tirips, tcejbo, namuh, a ni tirips siht part." Koyuki chanted this backward message thirteen times. Soon enough, a flash of light went around the circle Koyuki had made, and they saw a brief flash of Mois being sucked up into the necklace talisman.

"She screamed... It apparently hurt a lot." Giroro kept them posted. They didn't really want to know.

"First step done!" Natsumi smiled. At that very moment, the planet started shaking.

"What the heck? Mois's gone! Why is the planet shaking like she's trying to destroy it, then?" Keroro asked.

Paul frowned and did a diagnosis. "It seems machines are drilling into the planet prematurely, trying to take down the core. The planet may not be saved, after all."

"Kululu. Those must be Kululu's machines," Natsumi cursed, clenching her fist.

"Why would he do this? He'll die, too!" Giroro realized.

"We have to stop him!" she yelled.

They all nodded, and everybody headed off to stop him - well, most of them - all except the adults. They needed to dissuade him.

* * *

"You can have the planet!" Natsumi told him, "You can have your city! Just let us save the planet and let things live." She was the one who stepped forward to Kululu first, bringing her friends behind her. He was in the middle of the street, an army of clockwork soldiers surrounding him.

"Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu laughed in their face. "Let me think... Nah, I don't think so!"

"Why? Why would you do this?" Keroro asked.

"I want to," Kululu said simply. "I'm going to destroy the planet. I like the new me. I won't let you change me back. The planet's dying anyway, so I'm going to make everything remain the same. I'm going to kill everyone. And there's nothing you can do to stop me." He ordered his soldiers to attack.

Everybody was shocked. They had thought Kululu wasn't that evil. But he clearly was.

He was going to kill them all.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	25. Grand Finale

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

 **I'm so excited, this is like the final battle chapter. The next chapter is the epilogue and then I'll be done! YAY! I will then probably start working on something completely different, and then get distracted by a different story I want to write.**

* * *

"You have to stop!" Natsumi begged. "Please... you don't want this. Your platoon... Your friends... We'll all die."

"And I care, because?" Kululu asked, confused. "Ku, ku, ku. I care nothing for my platoon. And I don't have any friends." He looked over at Saburo and frowned.

"Come on, Kululu... Don't do this," Keroro begged. But Natsumi was slowly realizing that convincing him was futile.

Kululu had the least memories out of the mutants. He didn't remember any of the good times with them. He had no positive bond with them at all. He'd even be willing to kill Saburo, after all.

"He won't listen. We have to attack," she realized. The clockwork soldiers moved against her, though, matching each of the five humans and each of the three frogs. (Two, technically, since Giroro was human)

There were hundreds of them. It was like they were their own civilization and they were hard and cold. When Natsumi tried to punch one, her hand just clashed against metal. They were strong. Rather slow and frightening, but she was no match for them.

Giroro managed to take down a few with weaponry, but soon he was outnumbered and also unable to take them all down to get to Kululu.

Keroro and Fuyuki were just at a loss. Saburo could dodge them rather easily, but attacking was out of the question.

Koyuki was experiencing the same issue as Natsumi. Only Momoka could punch into their metal flesh.

"I'm going to destroy this planet," Kululu declared. "Won't you like that, Mois? Isn't it great?" he asked, turning to his side, hoping she was there.

"Uhh... she's not there, dude." Giroro pointed out.

Kululu frowned awkwardly. He couldn't hear Mois, so he never knew where she was. "Oh. She's not even here for the destruction of the planet? Darn." He was a bit irritated. He knew she'd come eventually. So the shaking continued.

It was hard for everybody to stand.

"Tamama Impact!" Tamama blew up one of the soldiers. "You have to stop this! If the planet dies, so will all the Nishizawa sweets!"

Kululu's eyes widened as a soldier collapsed and he saw Tamama. His eye twitched. "Y-you're alive?"

"Yep. Why's that a problem—Oh wait, you tried to kill me." Tamama realized that coming along on this mission perhaps hadn't been his best idea.

Kululu held his remote for the drills in his hand, but he seemed to forget about everyone else. He charged at Tamama in anger, a blade in his hand, ready to stab.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Tamama apologized, but Kululu tried to stab at him anyway.

Keroro ran forward and pushed Tamama out of the way of Kululu's attacks. He wasn't about to let Tamama be lost to him. His arm started bleeding from Kululu's blade.

Kululu hissed as Tamama frighteningly ran into the crowd of soldiers to be attacked by them instead.

"You'll die soon with the rest of them, anyway," he hissed.

"I'm sorry! I know you're mad because you think I ate that woman!" Tamama told him.

"You... You killed her..." Kululu growled. His anger hadn't waned. He would have his revenge.

"I didn't kill her! I lied! She's fine! She went off to deflect a bomb headed for you instead. Her body was obliterated on this plane, but the radiation apparently mutated her into a spirit, the sixth sense or something!" Tamama tried to explain.

"I don't believe you," Kululu told him, "and honestly, I don't care. How she died doesn't matter at the moment. What matters is this planet's destruction."

Saburo tried to sneak up on Kululu as he talked. If he got the button out of his hand, he could turn it off. He could save them all.

However, Kululu saw him with his eye that could see the future. He grinned and a clockwork soldier grabbed Saburo, despite his struggles.

Soon enough, his clockwork soldiers had grabbed everybody. Natsumi's fighting ran out, and even Momoka had been captured when he used Fuyuki as a distraction.

"I wonder if I should let you live till the grand finale or die before planetary destruction has even happened. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu had all of them now. "Easy answer. Kill them. Crack their necks. They don't deserve to see the finale."

Natsumi winced.

They were all unaware that Kululu had forgotten one person.

* * *

Dororo didn't let his dizziness bother him. The planet was shaking. Pekopon needed him. He ran to the group's side as fast he could, before their necks were snapped.

He had to think fast. To save his friends. They had saved him from his mutation, after all. He knew attacking Kululu wouldn't work, Kululu was stronger than him. But he suspected why Kululu was trying to destroy the planet - to impress Angol Mois, in a way.

He had heard what they had spoken about while he was in the tank. Their plan, a plan that he fully supported and approved of.

He ran forward and swiftly stole the talisman off Koyuki, knowing at the time he didn't have the strength to save anyone. He showed himself to Kululu and held the talisman in his hands.

"Stop," he ordered.

"Why?" Kululu asked. He put his hand up to prevent the soldiers from cracking the groups necks immediately though. He wanted to see what Dororo had planned. He seemed weak from the unmutating process. An easy kill, if Dororo wanted a fight.

"Release them, or I'll smash this," Dororo bargained. He tried to bluff, he didn't really want to kill Mois. He hoped Kululu would believe him, though.

"And I would care why?" Kululu asked.

"We trapped Mois's spirit in this talisman. If I smash it she won't even be on the spirit plane. She'll be dead from even death. She'll be gone. That's it."

Kululu took a sharp intake of air.

"It's true. Mois's in there," they all agreed. Their faces didn't show any signs of lying.

"I'll give it to you if you release them," Dororo lied. He hoped he was good at bargaining. His face remained strong and willfull so Kululu couldn't see that he was bluffing.

"Ku..." Kululu thought. "Fine. But you only get one person released. Only one of them can live till the finale. Since it's one person's life, you hold hostage." He made a fair negotiation.

Dororo winced, but nodded. "I... I choose Koyuki," he decided quickly.

"I see your plan. You're going to keep the necklace," Kululu predicted. "So give me the necklace and then I'll release her."

"How do I know you will?" Dororo tried to negotiate.

"Doesn't matter to me if she dies now or in fifteen minutes," Kululu told him. Dororo frowned. His plan had failed. Kululu approached him and took the necklace from Dororo's weak body and released Koyuki.

"You need to do the ritual somehow, Koyuki," Dororo told her.

"I can't," she told him. "Not on my own. All I would need to do is shove it into the ground, cracking it clean in half, but... on my own... I might not be able to make a clean cut. She'd die if I didn't do it right, and... the energy on my own would kill me. And... I don't even have the necklace," she told him.

"Then beat Kululu. I have faith in you," said Dororo.

Koyuki nodded and quickly ran toward Kululu with her knife. She had to kill him, for the planet. Kululu dodged, predicting her movements.

"Guess you lost your life, anyway." He stabbed downward into Koyuki's back as she tried to spring toward him. It was a near-fatal wound. She fell to the ground, but as her eyes widened in shock, she made a quick decision. She didn't grab the necklace out of Kululu's hands, she swatted it out of his hands.

It flew through the air and toward Natsumi. Natsumi grabbed it with her teeth, catching it. She was still in the firm grip of the clockwork soldier, though.

Kululu screamed in annoyance. Dororo screamed in anguish. Despite being weak, he launched himself at Kululu, attacking him wildly and distracting him for a few moments.

Natsumi tried to talk. She couldn't struggle free of the soldiers grip, but she knew one person who could.

"Giroro," she whispered, thinking fast. "You have the All Things Are Living gun strapped to your belt, right?"

"Always. Don't want to turn back into a Keronian. It could poison you," Giroro told her.

"Wiggle. Turn back. Being smaller will release you from their grip," she realized. Giroro smiled. It was a smart move, but risky.

He wiggled, and soon enough, he was a Keronian in a pile of clothes. He ran out and quickly bulleted down the soldier holding Natsumi.

Natsumi took the necklace out of her mouth and held it.

Giroro and Natsumi quickly worked to freeing their friends, soon enough they were ready to face Kululu again.

"Ahhh!" Dororo screamed as he to fell to the ground right as Kululu smacked him down to Koyuki's side. Dororo curled up to Koyuki, who was trying desperately to breathe.

"Congratulations... My timer says you've made it to the grand finale. Ku, ku, ku. One minute and a half left," he told them, laughing.

Natsumi's eyes widened. Koyuki was on the ground, and she was the one supposed to do the ritual to bond Angol Mois to the core. However, she couldn't. They needed Mois, though. She was the only one who could save the planet and possibly talk Kululu out of it.

She remembered what Koyuki had said on how to do the ritual, but that she might die. She had to risk it.

"Ku, ku, ku, ku! Praise me, Mois! You would want this sort of thing, right? Killing everyone is the stuff you love, my dear planet destroyer! Soon enough they'll all be dead too!" Kululu laughed to himself, begging for praise.

 _He... He wants to impress his distant memories of her. She really is the only one who can help._ She looked at Giroro.

"I love you." She spoke her simple last words and quickly without fear. She split the talisman in half with her bare hands, then shoved it into the dirt.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Natsumi screamed as intense pain wracked her body, and a light shown brightly as Mois's spirit energy was released. It felt exactly like Natsumi was being obliterated twice in one place, as Mois had felt.

She fell to the ground, closing her eyes, and let her hand fall limply onto the cold dirt. As she fell, Mois rose from the light, in her Angolian garb and incredibly sparkly, more so than usual.

She turned to Kululu, knowing what was happening instantly, having heard it in her talisman. "Why would I want the planet destroyed?" she asked him softly, trying to be gentle about it. "You're on it, after all. And I would never want you to die?"

Kululu just started shaking, looking at her shocked and her calm smile. He fell to his knees as his plan fell apart. He just made a small awkward smile, like he had made a mistake, and weakly clicked the button moments before the planet would be destroyed, causing his machines to stop.

"Thank you." She smiled at Kululu. "Now... As promised, I'll become the spirit governing the world and pump my spirit energy into the core. That should give the core natural energy and get the plants growing back," she spoke to the others calmly. They just watched her with a sense of wonder and relief that she had saved their life.

All except Dororo and Koyuki. They were lying on the ground, incredibly injured, along with Natsumi, who they didn't know if she was dead or not.

Giroro rushed to Natsumi's side to try to see if she had a heart beat.

"Is this where you want me to reside? Would you fully bond me to the core?" Mois asked.

"Yeah... This is fine," Fuyuki told her. "Do I need to speak some words to finish what my sister sacrificed herself for?"

"Just pledge that this planet will be safe and you'll all protect my place of spiritual rest," Mois smiled.  
"You won't be harmed. Ever. You'll be safe. We'll protect you, I promise," Fuyuki told her. "I pledge on my love for the occult."

Angol Mois frowned. Not exactly the mystical bond she had wanted, but it would do. As if in sheer seconds, a giant tree sprouted up behind her. Tons of the clockwork soldiers were sucked up into its giant bark and roots.

It was huge. And it was green. Dororo looked up at it from the ground, holding Koyuki's hand.

"We did it," he breathed out, smiling.

Mois smiled as well and turned around. She'd have to go into it now, to pump her energy into the core.

"Wait!" Kululu grabbed her hand, getting up. "Where are you going?"

"I have to go away for a very long time. It's the only way to save the planet. I need to be with the core. To be in this tree and rest and fuel the world. I'm sorry... I can't stay with all of you for much longer." She frowned politely.

Kululu shook his head desperately. "No! No! If you at least leave me again... at least tell me what you are to me. Why do I feel so strongly for you? What are we? Don't... Don't leave me again," he begged.

Mois tried to smile. She leaned down to him and put her forehead against his, her third eye against where he had no eyes.

"You know all the answers to those questions. Your mind may have forgotten, but your heart never would." Her spirit energy finally returned his memories to him.

His face contorted in realization as she pulled away. "Wait! Don't leave! Please... if you really have to... Take me with you. Please..." he said. "I love you. I want to be with you, Mois. I remember... And I know I love you now... Take me with you." He pulled at her hand.

"I'll always lurk in your heart," she said. "I know you love me. Don't worry. I love you very much too."

Kululu smiled. That would mean she'd take him with her, right?

She leaned down and kissed him on the lips, putting her arms around him. She kissed him for a good minute, before pulling away, pushing him away from her and being sucked into the tree.

Kululu grasped for her, but she was gone. Again. He fell to the ground, crying desperately. But she was gone.

"Wh-why couldn't I come into the spirit world too?" He just cried.

* * *

Most of them pitied Kululu, but Giroro was busy with his own problems of trying to resuscitate Natsumi. The fear of poisoning her wasn't there as he clutched her and held her, trying to shake her awake.

He tried everything he could, CPR, shaking, everything. But nothing would awaken her body. Finally he just cried. She was gone. There was no way to save her.

A tear dripped onto her cheek. He moved forward and gave her one last kiss.

The tear sunk into her skin, the radiation from his lips fell into her body, her skin became a little lighter like sunlight, and on the top of her head, two flowers sprouted, opening up to get energy. Her eyes opened, having mutated just a little bit, enough to give her the energy to survive.

Giroro could see twigs growing around her arms, coming from her shoulders and looping around like a bracelet. Flowers were sprouting all over her.

It didn't matter to him. As long as she had the energy to survive.

He hugged her.

"I'm alive?" She twitched her fingers and touched her head. "And I'm a mutant!" She didn't know how to feel about that. Disgusted? No... She felt powerful.

She glanced over at Koyuki. Dororo was bandaging her up desperately. It looked like she'd have the strength to pull through though.

She hugged Giroro. She was a little freaked out about mutating, but she felt good about it. "It's over, Giroro. You know what that means? You can finally go back to your old self!"

Giroro smiled. "What about you?"

Natsumi shook her head, "My mutation... The sun's energy is the only thing saving me from the energy I exerted releasing Mois's seal. I should probably keep it. And, I look way cute. Much cuter than the mutation made you look."

Giroro grinned. He was happy that she was proud of who she was.

He held her hand. Soon, they would be able to have a normal life, and the world would regrow and heal.

They would be happy. Like they deserved. Despite the weirdness they had endured.

* * *

 **Please review! One more chapter left! YAY!**


	26. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything!**

 **YAY! Last chapter! Finally done with this story. I've had this story planned since November? So it's fun to be done. It feels so great to finish a story.**

* * *

It took a full weak for Giroro to go through the process of unmutating. While Momoka's father and Momoka lead the effort to rebuild the world, he just rested.

Natsumi visited him sometimes, hoping things would be fine. She had been told that his eyes would never return to him, that they had fully fallen out and they wouldn't grow back, but everything else should be healed.

She felt bad for him that he wouldn't be able to see again.

It felt like a month, but a week of separating had been painful. Eventually, Giroro came out of the tube, fully healed.

"Natsumi." He smiled. His skin was back to its full red color, no longer course and rough but soft. He touched her face. "I can feel you," he laughed, joyfully.

"Yes you can." She grinned, leaning in for a kiss. Giroro blushed at the sensation, but laughed as she nuzzled his face.

"I just wish I could see you too," he whispered.

"Some scars don't heal. I'm sorry," she told him. Giroro nodded; he understood that.

"I'm just so glad it's over. The world can heal... A new civilization can start for Pekopon, and we can travel all over the world shooting corpses and mutated rats. It will be living the dream!" Giroro declared.

"I don't think I really want to do that." She laughed. "That's not actually the most romantic."

Giroro frowned. "Fine," he grumbled under his breath.

"Will you be okay shooting anyway? You don't have super hearing and you can't really see..." She pointed out.

Giroro slapped his forehead. "You're right!" he realized. "NOOO!"

Natsumi giggled and kissed his cheek. "Maybe consider this your retirement, then? We can live together, you don't have to fight any longer."

Giroro frowned. But he wanted to fight! But living happily with Natsumi sounded like a good plan, too.

Maybe... Maybe there was a way to artificially grow eyeballs. He'd talk to Kululu, but the only one who could approach Kululu safely without getting poisoned was Natsumi.

He could always hope.

* * *

They lived like they were already married. But they didn't live underground in a fortress. Natsumi and Giroro preferred the sunlight.

"I never want to be trapped underground again," she said. Giroro nodded; he could agree with that. Natsumi's flowers couldn't survive without sunlight, anyway.

Also, everybody was kind of sick of their very public displays of affection. They had kicked them out of the fortress and Giroro was now currently working with Natsumi and her mother to fix up the old Hinata house.

The world seemed so much brighter with more plants.

And Giroro was truly happy even though he couldn't see the brightness. He could feel it. And he missed being able to feel things.

* * *

The Nishizawa empire took over Kululu's old cities. They were futuristic technology that seemed to be quite beneficial to the planet.

Momoka was trying to integrate the clockwork soldiers into becoming people; they were an artificial intelligence after all. And there was quite a lot of them.

If the planet was ever going to be repopulated, they needed to find a new source of a population to continue the economy, and although some people had been proven to have survived all over the world, the clockwork soldiers were the perfect people to bridge the gap.

It had been Fuyuki's idea to try to teach them to think for themselves. "Artificial intelligence is the way of the future. I'm sure they can learn to function as people too!" he had told Momoka.

And Momoka trusted Fuyuki's ideas. "A heiress's work is never done," she said. It was like a school for robots. And Fuyuki was having fun.

Maybe she could even show them how to love, with all her personal public displays of affection with Fuyuki.

It would also give her an excuse to kiss Fuyuki more. Not like she needed one.

* * *

Koyuki still healed from her injuries. Her legs were still a little hurt from the injury to her spine. Dororo was always willing to help her, though.

"We're living on the surface too, right?" he asked her.

"Do you even need to ask? We can't let Mois do all the heavy lifting of helping this planet. We need to clean it up... Help the plants grow, too! Maybe we can even clean the ocean?"

"I love your optimism, lady Koyuki. We'll do it all." He smiled at her. It was a good plan.

Koyuki hugged him. "Just... don't you leave me again. I know our hearts are together and spiritually we won't be separated, but... I like being with you."

Dororo smiled, "And I like being with you too," he confessed. "I won't leave."

She needed the comfort. She had probably been so worried about him.

She was probably the greatest person he had ever met.

* * *

Keroro and Tamama weren't as affectionate as the rest of their friends. Keroro mostly worked on trying to start a communication channel with the undersea race.

"They said they'd talk to us in emergencies, but they don't like being bothered," he finally told Tamama after chucking a bunch of walkie talkie's in the sea. Communication hadn't been the most successful. "I just feel like I owe them so much."

"Why? They healed you because they needed you," said Tamama. He still hadn't really talked much to Keroro about the previous relationship they had been in. He was finally remembering all the sex they had. Wasn't as awkward for him as it was for Keroro, though.

"Yeah. But... they brought me you, too! And that, I owe them for," Keroro told Tamama.

Tamama's eyes widened. "Wait, Mr. Sergeant do you care about me?"

"Of course I do. You're my platoon mate," he insisted.

"Do you love me, I mean," he clarified, annoyed at Keroro's idiocy.

Keroro laughed. "I'm not gay, private."

He frowned. "Oh yeah you certainly didn't _seem_ gay when I was sucking your dick," he muttered. He knew it was an under-handed subject to bring up, but he did so anyway.

Keroro turned pink. "Uhhh... So, weather's nice." He tried to change the subject.

"Mr. Sergeant... We really need to talk about that, actually. I mean, I'm super sorry for putting you into a really bad relationship with me - I regret how it happened - but I don't regret that it was there if you know what I'm saying. I do love you, like I said when I was mutated." Tamama decided to be the brave one.

"Yep. That weather sure looks nice." Keroro kept on talking. "I think I see a cloud."

Tamama sighed. "Do you really only care about me as a platoon mate?"

Keroro thought for a moment. "Not only as a platoon mate. As a friend, too!"

Tamama slapped his forehead. Keroro saw that that answer wasn't the one Tamama wanted.

"I like you fine as a... Tamama too. I like you." Keroro tried to say the thing Tamama wanted, but just kept messing it up.

Tamama smiled. "Then... Can... Can we maybe try a real relationship... not unhealthy? I'll let you lead, I won't control you," he promised. "Just... can we try it? I don't want to have ruined it because of my mutation."

Keroro finally gave a stiff nod. "Trying doesn't sound bad."

* * *

Fuyuki visited his sister a lot. He liked researching her mutation and making sure everything was fine with it.

"I feel like you're looking at me like an occult subject matter," Natsumi teased.

"What's the problem with that?" Fuyuki asked, honestly not knowing.

Natsumi frowned. That answered her question. But it helped that he was learning so much about her mutation, that way if something went wrong he could help.

She was glad to have such a smart brother.

* * *

Saburo stayed in the Nishizawa fortress. Before going outside during the apocalypse, he would have craved something interesting. He would have hated being boring and almost broke when Kululu had told him he was boring.

However, after the whole ordeal of almost dying multiple times, he craved boring. He didn't want to deal with it anymore.

He just wanted to live out his life calm and peacefully, and although his friends were off doing amazing things, he just wanted to focus on himself and his mental well-being.

That was enough stimulation for him. He needed to do a lot of soul-searching, after all. It was selfish of him to have only been worried about things being boring when everything was dying.

He needed to better himself as a person, and that was what he was prepared to do with his time.

* * *

Kululu didn't let anyone heal him. He didn't want to unmutate. So nobody could visit him without being poisoned.

He kept close to the tree that Angol Mois resided in, waiting for the day the planet would be safe enough for her to come out and visit him.

He could see it with his third eye, the one that showed him the future. Only in that eye could he see Mois. And that was the only thing keeping him going.

He just waited patiently for the day she'd return to him.

Fuyuki was busy helping Natsumi, so Kululu tried to watch her tree, making sure that no awful Pekoponians hurt her, or anything hurt her. He watered it lovingly and tried to keep close.

After several months of mostly solitude, the core was finally healthy enough for her to project herself for at least a little bit.

She smiled at him and grinned. She could never leave this planet again, but if she left from her tree portal, she could explore the planet as much as she wanted.

When he saw her, he hugged her and held her tightly. "How long will you be here before you have to go back?" he asked her.

"I can visit you every day now as long as you don't leave Pekopon." She kissed his nose. He handed her some flowers he had picked.

She grinned and hugged him tighter, pulling him into a passionate kiss. He kissed back for the sheer comfort of it.

He was finally with her, and she was safe. That was all that mattered to him.

* * *

Eventually. Kululu was forced to seek treatment for his mutation. He liked being able to see, and he liked being able to see the future, but Mois was with him in the present. And she was being pretty insistent that he should gain the feeling of touch, since he couldn't really himself making out with her.

With that in mind, he finally went to the Nishizawa fortress, and was healed from the final bits of radiation.

And they could all talk to him again.

* * *

The platoon met together, all their memories returned and happy with their lives. They were still a platoon; they knew they'd always share a bond of being a platoon.

"This is a nice planet," Giroro gruffly stated. They hadn't had a meeting to talk about their platoon in two years, but Keroro had finally called it. Had he wanted to start the invasion again? "I especially like the people."

"Specifically one," Kululu teased Giroro. Giroro blushed.

"I'm not ever going to leave this planet. This was where I was meant to be," Dororo declared.

"I don't think I was meant to be here at all. But, I am staying here. Mois can't leave and it wouldn't be fair if we all just abandoned her," Kululu stated.

"About that... I like this planet too guys, but technically we're still invaders," Keroro pointed out. "But I think we should stop. We should end the invasion. Hopefully, headquarters will think we died in the nuclear apocalypse."

"No, duh, we're stopping the invasion," Giroro shrugged.

Keroro nodded. "Then we're all in an agreement? This ends."

They nodded.

"We'll stay on this planet forever, then," he told them. Solemnly, they nodded. They had to. But they'd be happy about it.

* * *

 **Please review.**

 **Okay, what other stories I have planned.**

 **A supernatural/kind of werewolf vampire AU. I'm not above it, I am sorry. It'll be short though 10 chapters. Not 50,000 words like this one was. Do not fret.**

 **A Pirate AU, I've got most of the story planned out.**

 **I want to work on a fluffy Kurumois story, to work on my fluff and my relationship developing skills. I'm planning on maybe doing a fake dating story? That trope because I'm not above it, I'm sorry.**

 **I'm really bad at fluff though, so if anybody could give me tips or writing help or just wants to comment on that and give me criticism for that story I'd love it since usually I write more dramatic stories.**

 **Anyway, that's what I have planned. Hopefully I'll write those frequently but I'm also in my first year of college so idk?**

 **I might have more time now that I'm cutting out meal time from my life and have to start a medication drink instead of meals though. So maybe I'll be fast about that.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading!**


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